PRELIMINARY REPORT: ARMED RIOT POLICE BEGIN FORCED

C O N F I D E N T I A L HARARE 001874

SIPDIS

STATE FOR AF FOR A/S KANSTEINER AND PDAS SNYDER; AF/S FOR
DELISI AND RAYNOR; AFPD
NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER
LONDON FOR GURNEY
PARIS FOR NEARY
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/13/2013
TAGS: KMDR KPAO PHUM PREL ZI
SUBJECT: PRELIMINARY REPORT: ARMED RIOT POLICE BEGIN FORCED
SEIZURE OF DAILY NEWS' ASSETS


Classified By: JPOLACHECK FOR REASONS 1.5 b/d


1. (C) According to an eyewitnesses account by head legal
counsel of The Daily News, (TDN),Gugulethu Moyo, armed riot
police came to the TDN offices and began forcibly removing
the assets of the company. In place of taking TDN CEO Sam
Nkomo to court this morning (September 16),the police
instead suggested a meeting at TDN offices instead. At which
point they declared to TDN legal counsel, Moyo, that "we're
seizing all assets." The police presented no warrant, no
court order, or any documentation at all. When Moyo and
Nkomo protested, they were told by the fully armed Law and
Order Maintenance police unit, that "if you want us to get a
warrant, we'll just arrest you for resisting our efforts."
The police then went ahead and began to pack up the assets of
TDN, desks, files, computers, etc. This continued as of
14.00Z. TDN advised that they have already filed an urgent
application for an injunction against the seizure. As well,
Moyo is preparing an urgent application to attempt to prevent
a similar event from occurring at the new printing presses
which TDN used and is actually owned by a seperate company.
SULLIVAN