US embassy cable - 03HARARE1874

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