A leading Zimbabwean human rights campaigner charged with plotting to overthrow the government has appeared in court, in a case that has deepened doubts over whether power-sharing is possible.
Jestina Mukoko, head of a local rights group, and eight other activists were charged last week with recruiting or trying to recruit Zimbabweans to undergo military training to topple President Robert Mugabe's government.
Opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has threatened to suspend negotiations with Mugabe's ZANU-PF over their case.
The government has appealed to its highest court against a High Court ruling ordering the release of Mukoko and her co-accused.
The High Court also ordered 23 other activists, mainly opposition supporters, to be freed from police custody because their detention was illegal.
The activists' lawyers said police were using delaying tactics to keep them in custody.
The activists appeared in court in green uniforms with their hands and feet shackled. They included a woman carrying her two-year-old child.
Seven other activists in the court were charged with bombing police stations and two others faced lesser charges.
South Africa said on Monday that the arrest of the activists should not delay the formation of a unity government, despite opposition threats to pull out of a power-sharing deal.
SADC mediation has failed to push Zimbabwe's rival parties into implementing the power-sharing deal seen as the best chance to ease an economic crisis marked by hyperinflation and severe shortages of basic goods.
