Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai went on trial for high treason on Monday after a delay as baton-wielding riot police denied independent journalists and diplomats entry to the courtroom.
Tsvangirai and two other senior members of his Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) are accused of treason for allegedly plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe and stage a military coup.
If convicted, they could face the death penalty.
Riot police arrested two journalists and manhandled diplomats as they selected who would be allowed into the courtroom, causing the trial to be delayed for more than three hours as defence lawyers applied for independent journalists to attend.
After Judge Paddington Garwe directed that ”members of the
public and other interested persons be admitted”, the trial opened with a summary of the case from state prosecutors.
Standing in the dock, Tsvangirai and his fellow defendants, MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube and shadow minister of agriculture Renson Gasela, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Lawyer Bharat Patel presented the case for the state. He said prosecutors would try to prove that the three ”conspired to remove the head of state and the government and take over the reins of power”.
”The state seeks to punish them,” he added.
He said the first witness would be Ari Ben Menashe, the head of a Canadian consultancy firm which held talks with Tsvangirai in 2001 during which the possible elimination of Mugabe was allegedly discussed.
The opposition says it did not know that Ben Menashe was a close associate of the government and says its officials were framed with a heavily edited videotape where Tsvangirai allegedly discussed assassinating Mugabe.
Further state witnesses will be Air Vice Marshal Perence Shiri and the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Organisation, Happyton Banyongwe.
Shiri was allegedly mentioned by Tsvangirai in the talks as a possible ally in the Zimbabwe military, and Banyongwe was the one to whom Ben Menashe gave the tape.
Tsvangirai was cheered by about 200 supporters when he arrived at the court early on Monday, but dozens of riot police blocked it off to members of the public.
Speaking outside the court, US Ambassador Joseph Sullivan said that his country would be closely following the case, which ”has important implications for the rule of law and democratic pluralism in this country”.
Sullivan was allowed into court, but diplomats from Britain, Germany and the Netherlands were turned away. A British High Commission representative, Sophie Honey, was among those seen being manhandled and pushed by police.
Journalists Ish Mafundikwa and Pedzisai Ruhanya were arrested after they challenged police outside the court as to why only state-approved journalists were allowed in.
Mafundikwa, who freelances for several foreign and local
organisations, including AFP, and Ruhanya, the deputy news editor of the independent Daily News were taken to a police station in central Harare.
”They are being charged for undermining police authority,”
Mafundikwa’s sister-in-law, Eunice Mafundikwa told AFP.
Only state media journalists were initially let into the court. Police later opened it to others — but only those who held new accreditation cards, delivered by the government under a tough media law passed just after Mugabe was re-elected in March.
Most foreign correspondents and local independent journalists have not yet received their accreditation cards.
In an interview broadcast Monday on the BBC, Tsvangirai said: ”I have got to go through this process. I am not worried at all. I am not guilty at all.”
The MDC has said the release of the video in February last year, when it was aired on Australian television, was designed to sideline Tsvangirai ahead of a presidential election one month later.
Tsvangirai lost that election to Mugabe by more than 400 000 votes, but the MDC has rejected the result of the poll, saying it was rigged.
The MDC claims the treason charges have been brought as
retribution against Tsvangirai, a former trade unionist and the only opponent to have posed a serious threat to Mugabe during his 23 years in power. – Sapa-AFP