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Some 200 opposition supporters released in Zimbabwe

HARARE
Tue Apr 29, 2008 8:55am EDT

HARARE (Reuters) - About 200 opposition supporters arrested in Zimbabwe late last week in a post-election government crackdown were released on Tuesday, their lawyer said.

World

"They have just been released. We obtained a High Court order for their release yesterday and the police had no basis to hold them for this long. I am angry because they need not have been arrested at all," Alec Muchadehama, lawyer for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, told Reuters.

Police said 215 people had been arrested in a raid on the MDC's headquarters on Friday. Police had said the raid targeted people who had sought refuge with the opposition after committing crimes outside Harare.

The MDC said armed police had taken away hundreds of people including women and children who had sought sanctuary at the party's headquarters from what the opposition calls a campaign of violence by President Robert Mugabe's supporters.

Official results show the ruling ZANU-PF party has lost control of parliament, but the outcome of a parallel presidential election has not been announced.

Muchadehama said several people had been released over the past few days, and the remainder, roughly 200, were freed on Tuesday.

(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Writing by Caroline Drees)

(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: africa.reuters.com/)



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