Zimbabwe’s High Court on Friday upheld treason charges against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai over claims he plotted to kill President Robert Mugabe.
”I’m satisfied there is no basis on which accused number one can be discharged… The application for his discharge is dismissed,” Judge Paddington Garwe told the hearing.
He said that two other senior officials from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had been cleared of treason charges against them. Tsvangirai and his two co-defendants had denied the charges, which hinge on secret recordings made of meetings held in late 2001, in which they allegedly called for Mugabe to be ”eliminated”.
Tsvangirai faces the death sentence if convicted in the trial that has so far dragged on for six months.
The trio has been on trial since February this year and in July Garwe adjourned the case to consider the defence application to have the charges dismissed.
The defence sought the acquittal of the three claiming lack of evidence that Tsvangirai plotted the killing of Mugabe when he discussed his ”elimination” at a meeting with Canadian political consultant Ari Ben Menashe in 2001.
Defence lawyer George Bizos said that Ben Menashe, who is the key state witness, was of ”questionable credibility” and ”a notorious and demonstrable liar”.
He also described Menashe and his personal assistant, Tara Thomas, as ”untruthful.”
The opposition claims it was set up by the government to discredit Tsvangirai in the run up to the March 2002 presidential polls, which were won by Mugabe. – Sapa-AFP