Zim police arrest anti-Mugabe protesters

A lawyer said on Friday that Zimbabwean police arrested 15 people, including a journalist and the brother of a missing political activist, during a public protest against President Robert Mugabe.

Opposition is mounting against the 92-year-old Mugabe, whose decades in office have been marked by economic decline, repression of dissent, claims of vote-rigging, mass unemployment and emigration.

Lawyer Obey Shava said police rounded up the activists while they were holding a vigil in Africa Unity Square in central Harare calling upon Mugabe, in power since 1980, to step down.

The police claimed the protesters had robbed a woman passing by.