Former Zimbabwe minister says he was abducted, held

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s former finance minister testified Saturday that armed, masked men in uniform abducted him from his home during the military operation leading to the ouster of longtime leader Robert Mugabe and held him for a week in an unidentified location, fueling debate about the legality of the popular, mostly peaceful takeover by the armed forces.

The account by Ignatius Chombo came a day after a High Court judge, a retired general, ruled that the military’s actions this month, which commanders described as a move against “criminals” around Mugabe, were legal.

While some critics said it set a dangerous precedent, the decision by Judge George Chiweshe reinforced the military’s assertion that it acted within the law even though it set off events, including impeachment proceedings and street demonstrations against the 93-year-old Mugabe, that ended his 37-year rule.

The joyful inauguration on Friday of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former top aide to Mugabe, showed that most Zimbabweans are happy to have a new leader who might take steps to revive the shattered economy and grant them more freedoms.

Even so, perceptions that the abrupt political transition was constitutionally sound are important to Zimbabwe’s new leadership, which must prepare for 2018 elections and seeks to attract foreign investment.

However, Chombo and two leaders of the ruling ZANU-PF party’s youth league who said they were abducted by the military before being handed over days later to the police described experiences reminiscent of human rights violations that were a routine occurrence during Mugabe’s rule.