Times: Despite Top Zimbabwean Officials' Admission the Case Is Groundless, Barry Bearak Remains in 'Frigid Cell'

Barry Bearak is still in jail. Top officials in Zimbabwe agreed the case against him was groundless, but according to Bill Keller, the state's lawyers overruled them and he'll remain in prison for a second night.

Here is Bill Keller's statement, sent to us through a Times spokeswoman, Catherine Mathis:

The government of Zimbabwe continues to hold our reporter, Barry Bearak, on charges that even the government's own lawyers recognize as baseless. He is being held in a frigid cell without shoes, warm clothing or blankets. He was interrogated for hours by police seeking to identify sources he may have interviewed. His lawyer informs us that the top legal officials in the office of the attorney general agreed that the case, based on the ludicrous assertion that he had misrepresented himself as an accredited journalist, should be thrown because the police could produce no witnesses or other evidence against him. But somehow the state's lawyers were overruled, and he remains in jail for a second night.