By Jan Raath, Sapa-dpa   

London-based human rights organisation Amnesty International on Tuesday demanded Zimbabwean authorities release an activist who exposed brutal abuses by security forces at a controversial diamond field in the east of the country.

Farai Maguwu was a prisoner of conscience who was being persecuted for carrying out his lawful work of monitoring and documenting alleged human rights violations at Chiadzwa, Amnesty Africa director Erwin van der Borgt said.  

Van der Borgt called on the Harare authorities to release Maguwu immediately and unconditionally.  

Maguwu has been in police custody for over a month on charges of issuing false information prejudicial to the security forces.  

He had reportedly given a leaked military document highlighting continuing violence at the Chiadzwa diamond field to an official monitor of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, the global watchdog on blood diamonds.  

His arrest intensified international concern over President Robert Mugabe's allegedly corrupt and violent handling of what is regarded as the world's biggest recent diamond find.

In 2008, over 200 illegal diggers were reportedly murdered and thousands injured in a brutal eviction of 35,000 illegal diggers.  

Human rights bodies say the violence is continuing.

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