Weeks after police in Zimbabwe announced they had discovered an arms cache in eastern Zimbabwe, the authorities in Harare say they are introducing new laws to combat terrorism, according to reports on Monday.
Under the recently-gazetted Suppression of Foreign and International Terrorism Bill, anyone who undergoes training for terrorism, recruits people to undergo terrorist training or who possesses weapons for the purposes of terrorism could face life imprisonment, the Herald newspaper said.
News of the proposed legislation comes just weeks after police in the eastern city of Mutare announced they had arrested a group of people in the east of the country who were bent on causing acts of ”terrorism”.
The nine men, who included four members of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, were arrested after weapons were found at the Mutare home of a white security expert Michael Hitschmann.
Hitschmann — who is a registered arms dealer — is still in custody facing charges of conspiracy to possess weapons for insurgency.
The MDC said the case against its members was trumped up, and state prosecutors later dropped terrorism charges against them and four ex-policemen. That development appears to have annoyed at least one of Zimbabwe’s top cabinet ministers.
National Security Minister Didymus Mutasa this weekend accused police of ”bungling” their investigations into the case.
Under the proposed new laws, the Zimbabwe government will be able to designate any organisation it believes is a ”foreign or international terrorist organisation” and declare it unlawful, the paper said.
There will be penalties for people who the government considers to have supplied information to terrorist organisations.
”Any person who collects or supplies information for purposes of foreign or international terrorist activity shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a hefty fine or imprisonment not exceeding five years, or both,” the Herald said. – Sapa-DPA