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HARARE - Zimbabwe's High Court has ordered police to allow lawyers access to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is said to be "in bad shape" after suffering head injuries while in police custody.
Police detained Tsvangirai and dozens of other opposition figures and killed a man while breaking up a prayer meeting organised in defiance of a ban on political rallies.
Rights groups allege he and other politicians were tortured.
"A provisional order was issued that we have access to our clients, that they should be taken to hospital where necessary and that they should be taken to court [today], failure of which they should be released," Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) lawyer Alec Muchadehama said.
Under Zimbabwe's laws, police can detain suspects for up to 48 hours before bringing them to court.
Earlier, a Tsvangirai lawyer, Innocent Chagonda, visited the MDC leader and said he was in bad shape. "He was swollen very badly. He was bandaged on the head. You couldn't distinguish between the head and the face and he could not see properly."
He was so severely beaten by police that he lost consciousness three times following his arrest on Sunday morning, his spokesman said yesterday.
Witnesses said Tsvangirai is lucky to be alive and described seeing the police taking turns to smash his head against a concrete wall.
"Describing what he suffered as mere assault is a huge understatement. It's attempted murder," said one witness in a statement.
MDC vice-president Thokozani Khupe said the party wanted all detainees freed immediately and pledged that struggle against President Robert Mugabe would continue.
"Mr Tsvangirai is battling for his life at Borrowdale police station after he was brutally assaulted," she said.
Political pressure group National Constitutional Assembly said its chairman, Lovemore Madhuku, suffered a broken arm and a bad head wound in police custody.
"In addition to the killing, they [those detained] were tortured in custody," rally organisers said.
Asked for a comment, police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said: "I wouldn't know about that because these people were arrested in different places."
- REUTERS, INDEPENDENT
