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Six Zimbabwe opposition party officials detained outside their headquarters on Friday were freed on bail after being charged with criminal nuisance and breaching regulations to curb the Covid-19 virus, lawyers said Saturday.
Police arrested Movement for Democratic Change Alliance (MDC) vice presidents Tendai Biti, a former minister, and Lynette Kore, and four other officials as they tried to enter the headquarters which are occupied by a splinter group involved in a legal battle over party leadership.
The six were ordered to pay a fine and to stay residing at their given addresses, Kumbirai Mafunda, spokesman for Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, told journalists outside the Harare court.
The MDC Alliance officials had sought police assistance to eject members of the splinter faction led by one of party founder Morgan Tsvangirai's former deputies who had occupied the building in central Harare.
The party has been locked in a bitter succession battle since Tsvangirai died in 2018 from colon cancer.
Last month the country's constitutional court ruled in favour of a splinter faction led by former vice president Thokozani Khupe.
It ordered that the party hold a congress to elect a new leadership within three months.
