Read Ben Freeth's account of the pre-election violence in Zimbabwe

The Campbells and Freeths are no strangers to aggression from Robert Mugabe’s thugs. But this time was different. After being tied up and kidnapped, they narrowly escaped with their lives from a nine-hour ordeal of beatings, torture and mock executions.

Mike Campbell, 75, his wife, Angela, 66, and their son-in-law, Ben Freeth were taken to a pungwe, one of the thousands of indoctrination meetings where people must chant pro-Mugabe slogans and are beaten if they fail.

The three were dragged in front of the mob of 50 thugs and doused in cold water. “Then they beat them severely,” Mr Freeth’s wife, Laura, said yesterday. “They put burning sticks in my mother’s mouth. They beat my father on the back and on the feet, and with a shambok, an animal hide.”

Mr Freeth, who is in his 30s, was hit on the back of his head with a rifle butt and then with sticks, causing a wound that nearly cost him an eye.

After that, they were bundled, bleeding, into the car again and taken to a local site called Pixton Mine. “They got them out of the car and held a revolver to their heads,” Mrs Freeth said. She said the family, who have led a landmark case before the Southern African Development Community regional court that stands to reverse Mr Mugabe’s policy of farm seizures, were then told to sign a piece of paper declaring that they would not go to the court. They were told they had to sign it or would be shot.

The men also forced them to sign a statement promising that they would not go to the police. Last night The Times visited all three in hospital in Harare, where they were lying heavily sedated, recovering from their ordeal. Only Mr Campbell was conscious, nursing a broken collarbone and hand, his face a mass of blood and bruises.

His wife lay unconscious in a room across the corridor, awaiting surgery today for her two smashed arms. Mr Freeth had fallen asleep after hours of vomiting from concussion, his head split open at the back, his eye hugely swollen from where he was beaten with sticks.

The attack on the Campbell farm at Chegutu, west of Harare, began at 3pm on Sunday. almost the exact moment that Zimbabwe’s Election Commission announced Robert Mugabe’s landslide victory in Friday’s tainted election.

Deon Theron, the vice-president of the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU), said the court case threat meant the attack was no coincidence.

“For Mugabe, this is about opposition,” Mr Theron said. “Mr Mugabe’s election slogan, ‘100 per cent empowerment’, should have been a giveaway. This is part of the 100 per cent, to get rid of the opposition.”

The Campbells and their son-in-law were to be the example to warn all other farmers intent on fighting the Government over the land seizures. When Mr Freeth was dragged from his car, he too was bound and bundled along with his in-laws into Mr Campbell’s own car. Mrs Freeth’s brother tried to give chase as they drove off, “but they shot at him from the car and he could not follow any more”.

After their release, Mr Freeth managed to reach a house where he was able to call his wife. Despite their appalling injuries, it was a relief. “It was the awful waiting that was the worst,” she said. “We thank God their lives were preserved.”

Farmers’ advocates fear the worst is not over yet. The Campbells and the Freeths are only the latest in a line of attacks, even if theirs was the bloodiest, all of which have involved farmers linked to the court case. “They want to stop this, it’s very clear,” Trevor Gifford, the CFU president said.

Astonishingly, perhaps, Mr Campbell has vowed not to give up. Mrs Freeth pointed to the 150-plus workers who rely on them for employment. “We trust in God,” she said.

Mr Campbell, from his hospital bed, was blunter. He would carry on, he said, and he was not afraid that the war veterans would return. “I’ll shoot the b******s if they do,” he said.

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