SUSAN NJANJI, Harare | Tuesday
ZIMBABWES opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, facing charges of terrorism and inciting violence, on Monday won a legal bid to have the Supreme Court rule in his case.
Tsvangirai and his supporters describe the case against him, which came to trial in a High Court in Harare on Monday, as a politically motivated attempt to stop him taking on President Robert Mugabe at the polls next year.
High Court Justice Moses Chinhengo granted a request by Tsvangirai to have the Supreme Court determine whether the law under which he was being charged was constitutional.
The charges against Tsvangirai, Mugabe’s only serious challenger in the presidential elections, arise from a statement the opposition leader made last year suggesting that Mugabe could be removed from power violently if he did not step down before the polls.
The leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said at a rally last September: “What we would like to tell Mugabe today is ‘please go peacefully, and if you don’t want to go peacefully we will remove you violently’.”
Tsvangirai stands accused under the notorious Law and Order (Maintenance) Act (LOMA), used by the former colonial government of Ian Smith to crack down on black dissent and nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s in the then Rhodesia.
The high court judge acknowledged that the act was colonial piece of legislation which would always be tested each time it was to be used for prosecution in independent Zimbabwe.
“It is common knowledge that the … Act [LOMA] is a colonial piece of legislation.” Chinhengo said.
“That historical fact seems to suggest that in the new dispensation ushered in by the independence constitution, the LOMA would sorely be tested each time it was relied upon in a prosecution.”
Information and Publicity Minister Jonathan Moyo told reporters after the court’s decision that government was “satisfied” with the High Court decision and would respect it.
Given the backlog of cases at the Supreme Court, it might take months before Tsvangirai’s challenge on whether the sections of LOMA contravened the constitution or not.
If convicted, Tsvangirai faces up to a life sentence in prison, but a sentence of six months would see him effectively barred him from running in the elections.
Meanwhile, a leading Zimbabwe high court judge who nullified three parliamentary election results won by Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party last year has resigned, the state-owned Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday.
High Court judge James Devittie said he would leave his post from July after serving five years on the bench.
“I find myself unable to justify my continued stay on the bench…I intend, in the immediate future, to devote my efforts in the area of judicial and legal reform,” Devittie told the paper.
Devittie’s resignation follows that of former Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay who was forced into early retirement in March. The government had accused Gubbay, a white Zimbabwean, of bias in favour of the country’s white minority.
Devittie had overturned three election results originally won by ZANU-PF in last year’s parliamentary poll, saying they were won through violence and intimidation.
One of these ruled in favour of Tsvangirai who went to court to get the election result at his Buhera North constituency overturned.
The International Bar Association last month condemned the Zimbabwean government for intimidating the judiciary and undermining the rule of law. – AFP and Reuters
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