The government-owned press, TV and radio stations blared forth about the American saboteurs. The results of such a media blitz were predictable and the independent press started talking about four bomb scares against the US embassy in a week and students demonstrating outside it. The missionaries were arrested on March 7. They were held incommunicado and tortured for a week in a specially constructed torture centre next to the high security prison outside Harare. When I first saw them in court on their second remand hearing they were very, very frightened men.
Torturers are unimaginative, bestial people and they repeat themselves.
Every awful torture you have seen on films or read about happened to the three missionaries. It's hard to get a good lawyer for a criminal case in Zimbabwe, not because there are no good lawyers but the appalling way they are treated by the authorities has driven most of them into civil cases. In Jeremy Callow, the three men were fortunate to have not just a brilliant but, more importantly, a conscientious lawyer. He pursued their case doggedly and actually damaged his health in the process. His wife cooked meals for the missionaries every time they were allowed to have food taken in to them.