Takudzwa Ngadziore, a member of parliament representing the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party, is suing several state security agents for abducting and torturing him in 2024.
Ngadziore is seeking US$150,000 in compensation from the perpetrators for the damages he suffered during this harrowing and dehumanizing ordeal, according to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR). Said ZLHR:
Ngadziore was left hospitalised after sustaining injuries, when he was abducted by some gun-brandishing men outside his residence in Harare on 1 November 2023, while he was on his way to attend a parliamentary session at the New Parliament Building in Mt Hampden, and was bundled into a vehicle and blindfolded with a sack, stripped naked and tortured.
The opposition legislator, who later learnt of the identity of his tormentors through social media reports, which unmasked their identities, after he managed to record and broadcast the abduction ordeal live on Facebook, a social networking site, had an unknown substance injected into his body during the torture before being dumped in Christon Bank, which is located just outside Harare.
He was tortured using some objects, which he believed to be a taser and iron rods and as he was being tortured, Hon. Ngadziore was quizzed about his political activities and the plans for his Citizens Coalition for Change political party.
Hon. Ngadziore was found by a passer-by, who gave him a work suit and the opposition legislator was taken to a medical facility, where he was treated for injuries sustained from the torture.
Now, Hon. Ngadziore is suing two Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operatives namely Nicholas Kajese and Abraham Pasi together with Isaac Moyo, the Director-General of CIO, Zimbabwe Republic Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga and Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Hon. Kazembe Kazembe, for US$150 000 for the abduction and torture, which he said was an egregious violation of his rights and freedoms.
In a summons filed at the Harare High Court recently, Hon. Ngadziore, who is represented by lawyers from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights argued that there was no lawful basis for the deprivation of his liberty and he had not committed any offence to warrant such inhuman, degrading treatment and punishment.
The opposition legislator argued that his abduction and torture violated his rights to freedom of personal security enshrined in section 52 of the Constitution, his right to freedom from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment as guaranteed in section 53 of the Constitution and his right to human dignity provided in section 51 of the Constitution.
Hon. Ngadziore, who disclosed that his tormentors wore balaclavas and were armed with assault rifles, said he suffered excruciating pain and mental anguish and also felt greatly humiliated and degraded as a result of the abduction and torture perpetrated on him by Kajese and Pasi and their colleagues.
Out of the US$150 000 that Hon. Ngadziore is demanding as compensation for his abduction and torture, US$50 000 will be damages for pain and suffering, US$50 000 will be damages for unlawful deprivation of liberty and US$50 000 will cover damages for humiliation, affront to dignity and embarrassment.
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