Badly beaten and tortured

Five men who sought to set up a political party to oppose President Mugabe
have finally been released from jail after serving four years without trial
on charges of treason.

Of their four years and a day in custody, two years were spent in solitary
confinement. All five men were badly beaten and tortured while imprisoned.

The five — mostly educated businessmen — were acquitted and then re-indicted
on the same charges, then acquitted of a false charge of an attempted
jailbreak before they were released.

A sixth member of the group remains in solitary confinement in Chikurubi
prison, outside Harare, on charges of plotting to escape. He denies the
charge