There were several days of pleas and threats of violence, Chavunduka said. Then they began to torture him at a professional torture center and at the military barracks, he said.

The journalists were tortured by beatings with fists and rubber batons to the head, body and feet and by application of electric shocks all over the body, said Sherman Carroll, director of public affairs with the Medical Foundation for the Care and Treatment of Victims of Torture in London. They were also submitted to the "submarine," meaning their heads were "wrapped in plastic bags and then submerged in water until they started suffocating," he said.

After their release six days later, Choto and Chavunduka traveled to London for physical and psychological treatment at the Medical Foundation.

"We confirmed they had been tortured," Carroll said.

Chavunduka's newspaper made an application for his release, and the High Court of Zimbabwe, another judicial body, ruled three times that the military release the editor. But the military defied them, releasing Chavunduka only after six days.

Chavunduka said he thinks a combination of factors finally led to his release--the growing international pressure, the series of orders from the high court and a big march organized on the Saturday immediately after his capture.

Both men were released on bail. On Jan. 22 both journalists, who are being represented by the local Zimbabwean firm Atherstone & Cook, were formally charged. The trial has been continually postponed until the Supreme Court makes its decision.

Both journalists are compelled by their country's law to return for their trial.