Police in Zimbabwe have arrested two journalists and eight opposition members on charges of kidnapping and torture, a police spokesman said Monday.
The ten were arrested late Saturday for allegedly kidnapping and assaulting Ndabazinhle Moyo, a resident in the country's second city of Bulawayo, police spokesman, Wayne Bvudzijena, told AFP.
Bvudzijena was confirming a report in the state-run Herald newspaper on Monday that reporter Grey Chitiga and photographer Mduduzi Mathuthu, both of the independent Daily News, had recorded the assault.
The paper said the MDC members wanted Moyo to confess that the country's Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) was behind the burning down of their offices on Friday, and the murder of a local war veteran leader.
In an interview with AFP Monday Bvudzijena confirmed the arrests but could not say if Moyo was a ruling party member.
The MDC claims its Bulawayo offices were torched Friday by ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party supporters, who went on the rampage, beating up white residents and opposition supporters.
The violence followed accusations from ZANU-PF that MDC members murdered war veteran leader, Cain Nkala, whose body was found last week, one week after he was abducted by armed kidnappers.
Nkala was Sunday buried as a national hero, while President Robert Mugabe once again accused the MDC, in league with whites and the British government, of being behind the murder.
The MDC denies the charges, saying Nkala's murder was the result of infighting among war veterans, who are staunch supporters of President Robert Mugabe.
The Daily News Monday said its two staffers were arrested for interviewing an MDC member who claimed to know who was responsible for abducting and murdering Nkala -- AFP
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