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Police in Zimbabwe have arrested five US health workers and a Zimbabwean doctor for allegedly operating a clinic without a licence in the capital Harare, their lawyer said Saturday.
"The two charges are that they were practising without a permit and distributing drugs without a pharmaceutical licence,"
Jonathan Samukange says. “Five of them are American nationals -- four are doctors and one is an administrator -- and the sixth person is a Zimbabwean doctor," he said.
Samukange said the six were operating a clinic in Harare and another at an orphanage in the northeastern town of Mtoko. "They come here to help, they are volunteers," he said.
The health workers, who were arrested Friday, are being held at Harare's central prison and were expected to appear in court later Saturday, he added.
Zimbabwe's state-run Herald newspaper said the six belong to an international church group that helps care for HIV and AIDS patients. The paper quoted a police spokesman as saying only two of the Americans were doctors.
Zimbabwe's public health sector is still recovering from the country's decade-long political and economic crisis, which saw most hospitals and clinics close.
