Zimbabwe police Tuesday released the estimated 250 supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) taken into custody late last week, reported the dpa.
Taken in a raid by police on the MDC headquarters on Friday in an operation said to be aimed at finding arsonists in attacks in a ruling ZANU-PF party stronghold, the MDC supporters were ordered to be released Monday by the High Court in Zimbabwe's capital Harare.
"I am really disturbed by the conduct of the police. ... They are only releasing them now. No reason was given for the continued detention," said Alec Muchadehama, the lawyer for the group.
The opposition claims that the people detained had sought shelter at the MDC offices from retributive attack at the hands of pro-ruling party war veterans and militants.
Meanwhile, the official results of the country's presidential elections is still unknown. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said Monday that it was expecting the figures from the controversial partial recounting of the presidential election by early Tuesday before the final verification of results is made.
As of Tuesday morning, ZEC had no comment.