Staff Reporter

Lawyers representing Jeffry Moyo, a Zimbabwean international freelance journalist, are accusing the police of over-detaining the reporter after arresting him on Wednesday for allegedly providing false information relating to the accreditation of two New York Times scribes.

Douglas Coltart, who is working with another Harare lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, told Grazers News on Friday afternoon that Moyo was being charged under section 36 of the Immigration Act for allegedly misrepresenting the accreditation status of the New York Times journalists.

Moyo was set to appear in a Bulawayo magistrates’ court late afternoon on Friday.

The Zimbabwean journalist’s lawyers who have been deployed by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) are insisting that Moyo did not commit any crime and is being subjected to spurious charges.  

“We are worried that the police have over-detained Jeffry and are we working to ensure that he gets his freedom. The police are alleging that the two New York Times journalists’ accreditation records are not appearing in the (Zimbabwe) Media Commission records.

“That’s a purely internal matter for the commission to deal with and has nothing to do with our client,” said Coltart.

According to the lawyer, Moyo merely collected the unnamed US journalists’ accreditation cards from the commission after they procedurally applied for them and surrendered them to the applicants.