Archive: The day Peter Tatchell tried to arrest Mugabe in Belgium

This was the dramatic moment human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell attempted to “arrest” President Robert Mugabe in Belgium in March 2001 on the charge of torture, under the 1984 United Nations Convention Against Torture. Tatchell approached Mugabe as he left a meeting with EU Development Aid Commissioner, Poul Nielsen in the Hilton hotel, branding him a torturer. But Mugabe’s security guards lashed out at Tatchell, pinning him to a wall and beating him over the head before leaving him lying in a gutter outside.