TWO Egyptian nationals recently spent 30 days at Harare Remand Prison following their arrest to "verify their documents" although they had valid visitors' permits.
The visitors, Emad Awny Elgamal & Khaled Fuozi Foudza, were arrested on March 6 and released a month later after the chief immigration officer Respect Gono conceded in court that their month-long detention was unlawful.
Elgamal and Foudza had entered the country lawfully through the Beitbridge Border Post, but were detained without charge until April 6.
When the matter was brought to court on April 5, the two visitors from north Africa through their lawyer Brighton Sadowera, proved to the court that they had valid visitors' permits which allowed them to stay in Zimbabwe for 30 days.
In an application filed on March 27, Sadowera argued that provisions of section 8 of the Immigration Act, which allows immigration officers to detain people arbitrarily for 14 days without taking them to court, violated the rights of detained persons guaranteed in terms of section 50(2)(b) of the Constitution. The Act guarantees the right of every person detained for a suspected offence to be taken to court within 48 hours of detention.
When the matter was brought before Justice Pisirayi Kwenda on April 5, the chief immigration director conceded that her organisation was unlawfully detaining the two Egyptians. They were released the following day and escorted to the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport by their lawyer on April 7 for their flight back to Egypt.
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