HARARE, Zimbabwe, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Lawyers appealed for the release on bail of Zimbabwean human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, jailed by President Robert Mugabe as a terrorist suspect.
Mukoko, 41, director of the human rights monitoring group Zimbabwe Peace Project, is being held without charges after allegedly being abducted and tortured by Zimbabwe's secret police, her lawyers argued before Zimbabwe's High Court.
The alleged torture included being forced to kneel for hours on sharp shards of gravel that cut deep into her skin and long bouts of a foot-whipping torture known as falanga, her lawyers said.
The lawyers asked the High Court to protect and enforce her rights under the Zimbabwean constitution.
The court did not rule on the lawyers' request.
Mukoko -- whose rights group had documented human rights abuses by the Mugabe regime -- disappeared from her home in the small town of Norton, 25 miles west of Harare, at dawn Dec. 3.
For nearly a month, court orders demanding officials reveal her whereabouts were won and ignored, The Times of London reported.
Security Minister Didymus Mutasa said in late December Mukoko was among a group of human rights workers and opposition activists held in "clandestine detention" in a national security operation.
While charges have not been filed against Mukoko, the former newscaster is being jailed as a dangerous terrorist suspect because Mugabe alleges she received terrorist training in neighboring Botswana to overthrow his regime, the Times said.
