Jestina Mukoko, a 41-year-old single mother working for Zimbabwe state radio, was running the Zimbabwe Peace Project when she was kidnapped by government forces over a month ago, in the small town of Norton. For almost a month, court orders compelling officials to reveal her whereabouts were won and ignored.

Finally in late December, Didymus Mutasa, the Security Minister, announced that Ms Mukoko was among a group of human rights workers and opposition activists who were in ‘clandestine detention’ as part of an operation of national security. This group of eighteen people had been accused of banditry, insurgency, terrorism and sabotage, and appeared in court earlier this month. However, another twelve people who were rounded up are not accounted for.

Charges have not yet been filed against Mukoko, but she is being detained as a ‘dangerous terrorist suspect’ based on unconvincing allegations that she had participated in terrorist training in Botswana, with a goal of bringing about the overthrow of President Mugabe. President Motlanthe of South Africa has dismissed these accusations as unbelievable.

Mukoko’s lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, has told the press of a new method of torture employed by Mugabe’s secret police. The technique involves forcing the victim to kneel on a pile of sharp gravel chips for hours on end. This was coupled with use of the falanga – beating the soles of the victim’s feet, a widely used torture method in Zimbabwe in recent years. Concerned by her client’s injuries, Mtetwa started a legal battle to have Ms Mukoko’s injuries treated in hospital.

Godfrey Chidyausiku, the Chief Justice of Zimbabwe, ordered authorities on January 8 to ensure that Ms Mukoko was given “appropriate medical attention as a matter of urgency”. Eight days later she was brought in leg irons and surrounded by guards carrying automatic rifles to the private Avenues Clinic. She was X-rayed and had an ultrasound scan while still in shackles. A drip had just been attached to her by doctors when a senior prison official ordered that she be taken back to jail immediately.