The treason trial of Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, accused of plotting to eliminate President Robert Mugabe ahead of presidential elections last year, resumed on Tuesday.
The trial, which resumed after a three week break, concerns the first charges of treason brought against the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader and two key members of his party, Welshman Ncube and Renson Gasela.
Tsvangirai has also been charged with treason — punishable by death in Zimbabwe — in connection with anti-government protests organised by his party two weeks ago.
He appeared in the Harare high court looking drawn and tired after having spent 12 days in police custody following his arrest on the last day of the MDC-organised protests, during which the state accused him of inciting Zimbabweans to violently oust Mugabe.
Tsvangirai is still waiting for a high court judge to decide whether he should be granted bail on the second treason charges.
The charges being heard on Tuesday against the MDC trio arise from evidence contained in a grainy video tape of a meeting they held with a Canada-based consultancy firm, run by former Israeli intelligence agent Ari Ben Menashe.
Ben Menashe has accused the MDC leaders of plotting to murder Mugabe, but Tsvangirai and his two party officials claim they were set up by the Dickens and Madson consultancy in a bid to sideline Tsvangirai politically, after he emerged as the most significant threat to Mugabe’s 23-year hold on power.
On Tuesday, Happyton Bonyongwe, head of Zimbabwe’s intelligence service, gave evidence to the court on the Central Intelligence Office’s (CIO) relations with Ben Menashe.
Bonyongwe was cross-examined at length by defence lawyer George Bizos — the high-profile South African lawyer who argued Nelson Mandela’s innocence in a treason trial 40 years ago — on services rendered to the CIO by Ben Menashe in exchange for significant sums of money.
Ben Menashe was allegedly paid $200 000 for five days of work done for the CIO.
”Information about the movements of the accused, among other things, I can’t be more specific,” was Bonyongwe’s unclear reply.
”You are trying to cover up the truth,” said Bizos, asserting that Ben Menashe had been paid to concoct a plot against the MDC leaders.
Ben Menashe told the court in February, when the trial opened, that Tsvangirai had clearly asked him to help kill Mugabe ahead of presidential elections last year.
But in the videotape shown by prosecutors on the second day of the trial, Tsvangirai was heard to say: ”The discussion was never about the elimination of Mugabe, it was about the election, and the post-election outcome.” – Sapa-AFP