Jestina Mukoko

"[4] She subsequently told The Independent newspaper that she was taken away for interrogation about her NGO, the Peace Project, then accused of recruiting youths for military training with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

She was beaten on the soles of her feet with rubber truncheons (allegedly a favourite torture instrument of the regime in Zimbabwe because they leave no marks likely to be visible at later court appearances).

[5] The so-called "Group of Elders", including Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan and Graça Machel, who at the time were being refused admission to Zimbabwe, made an appeal for Mukoko's release at a news conference in South Africa.

[5] On 24 December, the state-run Herald newspaper reported that Mukoko had appeared in court in Harare on charges of attempting to recruit people for military training to try to overthrow the government.

Amnesty International welcomed the decision, commenting that the charges were widely believed to have been trumped up by the Mugabe government as part of a wider strategy to silence perceived political opponents.