Transgender activist wins damages claim

The High Court (Bulawayo) has ordered the Ministry of Home Affairs and the police to pay transgender woman Ricky Nathanson US$1 000 as compensation for her unlawful arrest in 2004. The 53-year-old activist was arrested for allegedly using a women's toilet at a city hotel. Police believed Nathanson who was wearing make-up was a male. New Zimbabwe reports that Justice Francis Bere rejected the complainant's demand for US$2.7m, saying 'the quantification of damages is not meant to enrich the victim but to try to salvage some kind of dignity for the pain endured'. He said the arrest was a violation of her constitutional right as a citizen. 'For three days, the plaintiff was not only deprived of her liberty, but was subjected to forced anatomical examination in the most crude and naked manner by adventurous members of the police,' he said.