A member of a suspected spy ring arrested in December last year in Zimbabwe on charges of selling information about President Robert Mugabe’s party to South Africa has been released on bail, a daily reported on Saturday.
”High Court judge Anne-Marie Gowora yesterday released (Kenny) Karidza on one million Zimbabwe dollars (US$111) bail and ordered him to surrender his documents with the clerk of court,” the state-run Herald said.
The judge threw out an appeal by the prosecution against an earlier decision by a Harare magistrate to grant Karidza bail.
Karidza is a music promoter and deputy director for security for the governing Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF).
He was arrested in December last year together with ruling party external affairs director Itai Marchi, lawmaker Philip Chiyangwa, diplomat Godfrey Dzvairo and banker Itai Matambanadzo.
A 15-day trial of Ambassador-designate to Mozambique Dzvairo, Matambanadzo and Marchi ended February 8 with convictions against all three for breaching the Officials Secrets Act.
Magistrate Peter Kumbawa sentenced Dzvairo to six years in jail, and the other two accused to five years each.
They were the first convictions emanating from a scandal in which six members of the ruling Zanu-PF party were accused of being part of an espionage ring providing neighbouring South Africa with information on the party’s affairs.
The affair came to light when an alleged South African spy was nabbed by Zimbabwe Central Intelligence Organisation operatives at Victoria Falls in December.
Under questioning, he gave the names of alleged collaborators within the governing party.
In a twist to the espionage saga, Zimbabwe’s director of public prosecution was quoted in a local weekly in May as saying the South African national was a ”witness,” contradicting earlier reports that he was part of the spy ring.
Dzvairo, Marchi and Matambanadzo pleaded guilty to the charges at their first court appearance on December 24 but they later sought unsuccessfully to change the pleas on the grounds that their confession had been extracted under duress.
The three men were accused of being part of a ring run by Chiyangwa, a provincial party chairman, who has yet to face trial.
Chiyangwa, a flamboyant businessman with an extravagant lifestyle who allegedly received 10,000 dollars (7,722 euros) a month to pass on intelligence to South Africa, was freed by the High Court, which ruled that there was no evidence against him.
The sixth person allegedly connected to the affair, Zimbabwean diplomat Erasmus Moyo, reportedly escaped while being moved from Geneva to Harare. – Sapa-AFP