Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Friday said his acquittal on charges of plotting to kill President Robert Mugabe could serve as a basis for national reconciliation.
”On a positive note this judgement may have set a good basis for national reconciliation and a national solution for the crisis in the country,” he said at a press conference in Harare.
Tsvangirai was found innocent on treason charges on Friday that his party maintained all along were a bid by the government to frame him.
The ruling came as a surprise, because of the widespread expectation that President Robert Mugabe would be able to impose his will on a court system that has been criticised as political and corrupt.
Tsvangirai also said his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party would contest legislative elections in March.
”The elections I think are going to be an opportunity and a challenge for the MDC,” Tsvangirai said.
The MDC has threatened to boycott the March elections unless the government put in place conditions for a ”free and fair” poll.
”Some of the people who have decided to write off the MDC have to think again,” he said. ”This party is an alternative. It’s an idea whose time has come, it cannot be wished away.”
Judge Paddington Garwe, ruling in the Harare High Court, pronounced the MDC leader innocent in a long-awaited judgement in the downtown, colonial-style courthouse.
”The state has not been able to prove high treason beyond reasonable doubt,” Garwe said.
The charges stemmed from state accusations that Tsvangirai plotted to kill Mugabe with the help of a Canada-based political consultant.
The charges were based on a grainy, four-and-a-half-hour video recorded by hidden cameras during a meeting between Tsvangirai and political consultant Ari Ben Menashe in Montreal on December 4 2001.
During his yearlong trial that ended on February 26, Tsvangirai’s defence attorneys said the tape had been doctored to implicate him in a plot to murder Mugabe and stage a military coup to seize power.
Tsvangirai denied involvement in any such plot but conceded he mentioned the ”elimination” of Mugabe during discussions with Ben Menashe — in reference only to Mugabe’s possible defeat in the 2002 presidential polls and the possible formation of a new government.
Before the verdict on Friday, the opposition party described the treason case against its leader as ”democracy on trial” under Mugabe’s repressive rule.
Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi, in charge of the police, said police reinforcements were being deployed outside the courthouse to prevent any unrest surrounding the verdict.
He said security and court officials also were restricting access to the court by anticipated crowds.
Testimony in the nation’s longest trial — also one of its most bizarre — covered a broad sweep of intrigue, from the secretly recorded meeting to tampering with evidence and even an alleged plan by former United States president Bill Clinton, to be bankrolled by the Jewish community in the US, to persuade Mugabe to leave office.
Ben Menashe claimed he had been tasked by the Clinton administration to negotiate a deal for Mugabe’s retirement.
State prosecutors themselves withdrew allegations earlier in the trial that Tsvangirai spoke with Ben Menashe of the ”murder” and ”assassination” of Mugabe after the words could not be found on the secretly recorded tape.
Defence attorney George Bizos of South Africa, a human rights lawyer and long-time legal adviser to former South African president Nelson Mandela, had submitted evidence that Ben Menashe was already working for the Zimbabwe government’s security agency on an operation to discredit the burgeoning opposition in Zimbabwe when Tsvangirai visited him in Montreal.
He said Tsvangirai had only sought the consultant’s help to raise funds and canvass for support for the Zimbabwe opposition in the US and Canada.
The tape of their meeting was out of focus and barely audible.
Tsvangirai, freed on bail, had to surrender his passport after being charged two weeks before he ran against Mugabe in March 2002 presidential polls. He narrowly lost the election, which independent observers said was rigged.
His political activities were sharply curtailed by his lengthy appearances in the dock.
Ben Menashe (52), who claims to have been a former Israeli intelligence agent and a security adviser to the Israeli prime minister, was acquitted by a US federal jury in 1990 of charges that he illegally arranged a $36-million deal to sell US-made military cargo planes to Iran in exchange for the release of four American hostages in the Middle East.
Israel denied he was connected to intelligence work but said he served for a brief period as a junior clerk in its civil service.
Tsvangirai’s defence team said Ben Menashe’s frequently lied under oath while giving his evidence in order to cover up his efforts for the Zimbabwe Central Intelligence Organisation to entrap the opposition leader.
Evidence in the trial showed Ben Menashe received $650 000 from the Zimbabwe intelligence service.
Chief state prosecutor Bharat Patel, asking for a conviction at the conclusion of the trial in February, said there was still enough evidence to proving Tsvangirai plotted Mugabe’s assassination. — Sapa-AP