The Zimbabwean government plans to order a probe into the conduct of a white judge who last week ordered the arrest of the country’s justice minister for contempt of court, the state-run Herald said on Wednesday.
High Court judge Fergus Blackie issued the arrest warrant last week after Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa failed to appear in court because he was on a trip abroad.
Chinamasa told the Herald the warrant against him was a ”gross abuse of judicial office”.
He said he would recommend to the country’s chief justice that a tribunal be set up to investigate the conduct of the judge, who is expected to retire on July 18. Chinamasa told the newspaper he wanted the probe to go ahead regardless of Blackie’s imminent retirement.
The minister had been due to appear in court to answer charges for criticising the High Court for imposing a six-month jail sentence on three US missionaries convicted of weapons possession in 1999.
Concerns have been voiced abroad and at home over the alleged erosion of the rule of law in Zimbabwe and reports that the southern African country’s judges are being intimidated.
Meanwhile, president Robert Mugabe on Thursday congratulated the US on its independence day and said he hoped for improvements in relations between the two countries.
”I am confident that the years ahead will witness great improvements in relations between our two countries,” Mugabe said in his message to his US counterpart, George Bush.
”I wish you continued good health, peace and prosperity for the people of the United States of America,” Mugabe added.
The United States has banned Mugabe and his inner circle from entering its territory, accusing the Zimbabwean head of state of widespread rights abuses and of using violence and fraud to win the March 9-11 presidential election.
Last week the US decried an order from Mugabe’s government for 2 900 of the country’s 4 000 white farmers to stop working their land, calling it part of a misguided reform programme.
And this week a US magistrate in New York recommended that Mugabe’s ruling party pay $73-million in compensation for several cases of political killings and torture of political opponents. – Sapa