Luke Tamborinyoka

2007 arrest and lawsuit against police interrogation

In March 2007, police made a surprise raid of MDC headquarters, Harvest House, and arrested Tamborinyoka together with several others. No warrant of arrest was issued against him. Tamborinyoka said he was not informed of the reasons for the arrest, but was subsequently charged, resulting in him spending two-and-a-half-months in remand prison.^[2]

The charges against him were subsequently dropped and he claims that his arrest was therefore unlawful. Before his release, Tamborinyoka says he was subjected to interrogations and assaults by police officers who were more than five in number and used a baseball stick, metal objects, open hands, fists, booted feet and all sorts of weaponry. He says that together with fellow detainees they were forced to lie on their bellies facing the floor and were made to make different noises resembling nocturnal animals and birds.

After his release Tamborinyoka sought Z$20 billion for the interrogation he suffered while in remand prison. In the application, Tamborinyoka cited Ignatius Chombo, Augustine Chihuri, assistant commissioner Musarashana Mabunda, police officers only identified as J Chani and Kambanje, and the officer-in-charge CID Law and Order, as respondents.

In 2017 he however applied for the amount to be substituted with $200 000 arguing that the Zimbabwean dollar is no longer legal tender, since adoption of the multi-currency system in 2009. On April 26, 2017 High Court judge Hlekani Mwayera granted the application in Tamborinyoka’s favour and had not been contested by the State.^[2]

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