Harare: Suspected Zimbabwe ruling party members today abducted a lawyer representing opposition supporters and his whereabouts were unknown, a rights organisation said.

The abduction came a day after other alleged ZANU-PF supporters beat up a magistrate who granted bail to Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition supporters, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights told AFP.

"Lawyer Ernest Jena was abducted from his office in Bindura by suspected ZANU-PF members this morning and his whereabouts are still unknown," said organisation director Irene Petras.

"He was due to make a bail application for MDC members detained in Bindura. Some men came to his office saying they were looking for his assistant before they bundled Jena in a green Datsun Pulsar."

According to Petras, magistrate Felix Mawadza was beaten up by youths in ZANU-PF shirts as he walked out of a supermarket in Bindura, northeast of Harare, yesterday.

"His crime was that he granted bail to MDC supporters who were charged with politically motivated violence," Petras said.

Police in the eastern border town of Mutare also raided the house of a human rights lawyer, said Petras.

"It's a continuation of attacks on lawyers. There is a tendency of associating lawyers with the cause of their clients."

Last month Andrew Makoni, a Zimbabwean lawyer who represented several MDC supporters and key party members, fled to neighbouring South Africa, claiming he had evidence of a plan by pro-Mugabe militants to target lawyers.

Source : PTI