Zimbabwean police on Friday fanned out across Harare and set up road blocks before the High Court was to hand down a ruling in a high-profile treason trial of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who could face the gallows.
The complex housing the High Court, which is directly opposite top government buildings, was ringed by scores of paramilitary and riot police armed with automatic weapons and batons.
Police were on high alert and there were barricades on arterial roads leading to the tightly guarded High Court complex, an AFP correspondent saw.
Elsewhere, armed police patrolled nearby buildings and public parking lots.
Meanwhile, more than 100 people queued up outside the court, some two hours before the session was due to start.
There has been mounting tension in the run-up to the long-awaited verdict of the trial of Tsvangirai, whose treason trial hearings started in February last year.
There were fears of clashes between supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Zanu-PF over the ruling. MDC spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi said on Thursday that Zanu-PF was planning an orgy of violence.
”Reports reaching us indicate that Zanu-PF is planning to stir up trouble at the High Court. We are aware of a series of meetings since Friday last week at the Zanu-PF provincial headquarters in Fourth Street and at the party’s head office at Rotten Row in Harare at which a plan was hatched to cause mayhem regardless of the verdict,” Nyathi said.
”The idea is to heighten tension at the court, create confusion, and in the melee, cause harm to Tsvangirai. We can only hope for the best and expect the worst out of such a state-sponsored event.”
However, deputy war veterans leader Joseph Chinotimba said ex-combatants would respect the court verdict.
”We are not interested in seeing a particular ruling on the case,” he said.
”We will respect whatever judgement. The only thing is that we hate Tsvangirai for opposing the land reform programme.”
If convicted by judge Paddington Garwe, the outspoken opposition leader faces a maximum penalty of death by hanging.
Charges against Tsvangirai stem from a secretly filmed meeting between Tsvangirai and Canadian-based political consultant Ari Ben Menashe in 2001, in which the opposition boss allegedly sought help to organise Mugabe’s ”elimination” and a military coup.
Tsvangirai has denied the charges, alleging he was framed by the government to tarnish his image ahead of the 2002 presidential polls which he lost to Mugabe.
The Zimbabwean government, which views Tsvangirai and his MDC party as ”puppets” of the country’s white minority and former colonial ruler Britain, has warned that it will ruthlessly clamp down on any violence.
The MDC however has urged supporters to flock to the High Court and rally behind their leader while at the same time accusing Mugabe’s ruling party of trying to hijack the opportunity in court Friday to physically ”harm” Tsvangirai. – Sapa-AFP, Zimbabwe Indedendent