Female supporters and organizers for the opposition in Zimbabwe were subjected to violent sexual assault by leaders in Robert Mugabe’s party this spring in a systematic policy of punishment, according to testimony collected by the US-based advocacy group AIDS-Free World.

Over the past week, international human-rights lawyers have collected sworn affidavits from eight women involved with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, who were gang raped and brutally beaten this past March following Mr. Mugabe’s loss in the first round of presidential elections. At least seven hundred cases - demonstrating a systematic policy of sexual punishment by Mr. Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party - have thus far come to light, claims Zimbabwean human-rights activist Betty Makoni.

This investigation joins others spearheaded by Zimbabwean and international human-rights organizations, to gather and preserve evidence of state-sponsored human-rights abuses. Human Rights Watch and other NGOs have detailed numerous human rights violations under Mr. Mugabe’s rule. However, concerns have peaked in the wake of a wave of violence after the Zimbabwean leader lost the first round of the presidential election to the MDC’s Morgan Tsvangirai, the first open challenge to his authority in 28 years.

Mr. Mugabe and Mr. Tsvangirai signed a power-sharing deal in September but Mr. Mugabe has thus far refused to relinquish any control of the state. The two leaders left another round of power-sharing talks in Johannesburg this past weekend without a workable agreement.

Prior to the most recent testimony, a first group of nine women produced affidavits in September with the help of pro bono lawyers from the Toronto firm Blakes. Each of the women described how her attackers, who openly identified themselves with Mr. Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, made it clear that she was being attacked because she dared to challenge Mr. Mugabe’s rule.

“We’re hearing the same thing over and over, we’re seeing the same patterns in different parts of Zimbabwe: the women tell us about the same words coming out of the perpetrators’ mouths,” said Shonali Shome, AIDS-Free World lawyer. “The language that’s used, the pattern of how they were abducted, it speaks to a hierarchical level of command.”

Many organizations, such as Amnesty International, have documented the state-sponsored nature of the electoral violence. In campaign speeches, Mr. Mugabe spoke directly about what punishment would await those who challenged his right to rule and most of the women who have given affidavits repeatedly reported their attacks to the police, as have hundreds of others However, no report of election-related rape has been investigated or prosecuted, which may suggest the possibility of the actions having been state sanctioned.