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Zimbabwe Court Adjourns Mugabe Opponent's Trial Until Wednesday 11 days ago
(RTTNews) - A court in Zimbabwe on Monday adjourned the trial of Roy Bennett, a senior official in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party and a ministerial nominee in the unity government, until 11th November.
The High Court in Harare postponed the trial until Wednesday to consider a defense argument that a key prosecution witness be removed from the case as he has admitted that his statement implicating Bennett of participating in a plot to overthrow President Robert Mugabe in 2006 was extracted under torture.
Judge Chinembiri Bhunu said that he was postponing Bennett's trial to Wednesday to consider the defense argument regarding the statement of key prosecution witness Mike Hitschmann, who was convicted of the illegal possession of weapons in 2007.
Defense lawyers claim that Hitschmann has confessed that he was tortured into admitting that Bennett was involved in the alleged coup plot. The defense lawyers told the court that Hitschmann has disowned his earlier statement and is not willing to testify for the state against Bennett.
Last month, a court in Harare ordered Bennett's rearrest after indicting him on terrorism charges, including possession of arms for the purposes of banditry, terrorism and inciting acts of insurgency. He was initially accused of involvement in an alleged plot to assassinate Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in 2006.
Bennett's rearrest came seven months after the country's Supreme Court released him on bail from a prison in Multare in March. His rearrest last month was as per Zimbabwean law, which demands that a person indicted for trial be taken into custody until he is granted bail. Bennett, who faces life in prison if convicted of the charges pressed against him, was later released on bail.
Bennett, a white farmer whose coffee farm was seized under President Robert Mugabe's land-reform program, was first arrested at a small airport in Harare on 13th February, just hours before he was to be sworn in as a deputy agricultural minister in the newly formed unity government. He has been in and out of prison since then.
The MDC party alleges that the case against Bennett is politically motivated and says that it is an attempt by hardliners in President Mugabe's Zanu-PF party to derail the coalition. The party had warned earlier that the repeated arrests and harassment of MDC supporters were threatening the longevity and proper functioning of the six-month old coalition government.
Following Bennett's re-arrest last month, Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai temporarily withdrew from the coalition government on 16th October over issues related to power-sharing and police crackdown on his party activists.
However, Tsvangirai's MDC party called of its boycott of the country's power-sharing government earlier in the month, announcing that it would give President Mugabe 30 days to "implement the agreements on the pertinent issues we are concerned about." The announcement came after an emergency regional summit held in the Mozambican capital to resolve the Zimbabwean political crisis.
In February, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and an MDC breakaway faction joined Mugabe's Zanu PF party to set up a unity government in Zimbabwe as per an earlier agreed power-sharing deal, ending months of political uncertainty in the country.
In line with the power-sharing deal, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as the country's new Prime Minister, while Mugabe remained the president. The move, aimed at ending the political crisis in Zimbabwe and to pull back the impoverished African country from economic collapse, also effectively ended almost three decades of absolute rule by President Mugabe.
The current differences between the unity government partners emerge as Zimbabwe is making desperate efforts to get aid from western nations, who are demanding a faster enforcement of political and economic reforms for providing further financial assistance to the impoverished country.
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