Helping Police with Inquiries (Zimbabwe)
Sometimes the police will say that the person in their custody has not been arrested but is simply "helping the police with their inquiries." In fact this person may often be a criminal suspect and the police will be using the subterfuge that he is "assisting them in their inquiries" in order to allow them to hold and interrogate this person beyond the maximum periods laid down. There is no provision made for this procedure in the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act. There is only s 26 which allows the police to arrest a person without warrant and to hold him for up to twelve hours if the suspect refuses to furnish the police with his name and address or gives a name and address which appears on reasonable grounds to be false.
Zimbabwe Criminal Defense Manual
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