Former commercial farmer remains detained

Former commercial farmer remains detained

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Alex Bell
20 February 2012

A former commercial farmer in Zimbabwe has remained locked up over the 
weekend, over the ongoing legal wrangle for his home.

74 year old Peter Hingeston was arrested more than a week ago after failing 
to appear in court for medical reasons. He has been held behind bars ever 
since, despite his own lawyers assuring him that he could miss the court 
date on medical grounds.

He is now expected to appear for a hearing on Tuesday after the police have 
repeatedly delayed his previous bail attempts. Last Friday he was meant to 
appear for a hearing but the police ‘mislaid’ his case documents.

Hingeston was forced off his Lowveld sugar cane farm in the mid 2000s and 
‘retired’ to a house and plot of land in Vumba. But it’s believed that a top 
police official wants that property and for the last four years Hingeston 
has been fighting to stay there.

The President of the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), Charles Taffs, told SW 
Radio Africa last Friday that Hingeston suffers from high blood pressure and 
“is not a well man.”

A very angry Taffs also said that the farming community has been left to 
fend for itself in the face of ongoing persecution in and out of the courts.

“We have no one to turn to. No courts, no political party, no police to 
help. No one. And it is completely unacceptable! This madness must stop!” 
Taffs said.