Human rights group Global Witness welcomed the decision by the Harare High Court to grant bail to Zimbabwean diamond activist Farai Maguwu, who was held in police custody since early June.

Maguwu was charged with "communicating falsehoods" about human rights abuses in the diamond mining sector.

In a posting on the group's website, Global Witness's Elly Harrowell said: "We are pleased and relieved to hear that Farai has been granted bail, but we are extremely dismayed that the spurious charges against him are yet to be dropped. The systematic intimidation and harassment of civil society activists in Zimbabwe, exemplified by Farai's arrest, must end."

Maguwu is the Director of the Zimbabwean NGO Centre for Research and Development, which has been instrumental in campaigning against state-sponsored violence in the Marange diamond fields of eastern Zimbabwe.

His arrest followed a meeting with the official monitor from the Kimberley Process diamond certification scheme.

"Farai's bail must not distract from the horrific abuses, smuggling and militarized mining that are taking place in eastern Zimbabwe, nor from the fact that the country is still in clear breach of the minimum standards of the Kimberley Process," said Harrowell.

"The trumped up charges against Farai are a crude attempt by the Zimbabwean authorities to silence independent reporting on abuses in Marange."