Seven pro-democracy
campaigners arrested on terrorism charges in Swaziland for wearing T-shirts with
a political slogan have been remanded in jail for a further week.
The men, including
leaders of PUDEMO, the best-known opposition group in Swaziland, were arrested
outside the Swazi High Court. They were present with members of the public who
had come to offer support to magazine editor Bheki Makhubu and Human Rights
Lawyer Thulani Maseko.
The two men are in
the High Court on contempt charges arising from articles they wrote for the Nation, a small-circulation independent
magazine in Swaziland, that were critical of the Swazi judiciary.
Criticism of the Swazi
state is severely curtailed. King Mswati III rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last
absolute monarch. He picks the government and the top judges and political parties
are banned from taking part in elections. All political parties that oppose
King Mswati, including PUDEMO, (the People’s United Democratic Movement) have
been banned as terrorist groups under the Suppression of Terrorism Act.
The seven men, who
were remanded in jail by the Swazi High Court until 6 May 2014, are each charged with
four counts of terrorism.
One charge reads
that at the High Court and at a bus rank and in a street in the capital Mbabane
they chanted slogans while wearing the white T-shirts with PUDEMO written on
them and ‘reflecting terrorist demands at the back’. They also wore red and
black PUDEMO berets.
They are also
alleged to have ‘attempted, prepared, and conspired with others to do an act
with seditious intentions’.
The seven men are PUDEMO
Secretary General Mlungisi Makhanya; Public Relations Officer Brian Clive
Ntshangase; Bongani Gama; Bafana Mabandla Magongo; Siza Jabulani Tsabedze;
Ntobeko Gideon Maseko and Mangaliso Simanga Khumalo.
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