Three foreigners who were nabbed in possession of fake passports have been locked in remand cells since Friday without formal charges laid against them.
The three suspects, who are demanding immediate release through their lawyer, Jeremiah Bamu, are saying that they were illegally arrested.
Deror Elim, Seerwan Khalid and Deror Esav, who are appearing before Harare Provincial Magistrate, Barbra Mateko were not formally charged up to this date as a result of the language barriers between the arresting detail and themselves.
Prominent human rights lawyer, Bamu is arguing that it is a constitutional right for all accused persons to be informed of the charges at the point of arrest.
They allegedly entered the country using Israeli passports but were found in possession of Iraq travel documents bearing different particulars but same photo on both passports.
Elim, Khalid and Esav were not asked to plead to charges of violating the Immigration Act.
The State’s case is that on March 18, the three entered the country using Israeli passports and were each granted a thirty day Zimbabwean Holiday Visa.
It is also being alleged that on April 3 and before the expiry of their holiday visas, Elim, Khalid and Esav proceeded to Robert Mugabe International Airport intending to exit the country.
During checkout, they were searched by alert Immigration Department officials who discovered that each was in possession of Iraqi passport with different particulars from the Israeli passports but displaying same photo on both passports.
He added that Immigration officials conducted investigations and discovered that the trio illegally secured Israeli passports from an agent in Iraq leading to their arrest.
Sebastian Mutizirwa is appearing for the state.
