The trial in Zimbabwe of a controversial Anglican bishop hit a snag on Thursday when defence lawyers requested further particulars on the charges he faces.
Bishop Nolbert Kunonga of Harare, a staunch supporter of President Robert Mugabe, is accused of incitement to murder, threatening other bishops and church officials and misappropriating funds, among other offences.
He is being tried in a special ecclesiastical court in Harare.
If convicted by a Malawian Supreme Court judge and two Anglican bishop assessors from Zambia who are presiding over the case, Kunonga could face excommunication from the church.
Defence lawyer James Mutizwa told the court on Thursday morning that he was ”embarrassed” to enter a plea on behalf of his client until he was furnished with ”further particulars” relating to the charges.
He said it would be unprocedural for the trial to begin without first having sight of that information.
But prosecutor Jeremy Lewis urged Judge James Kalaile to continue with the trial.
”As you are empowered so to do, the ultimate decision on the rules of practice and procedure are yours and yours alone,” Lewis told the judge.
Kalaile adjourned the court, which has been set up in the trophy room at the prestigious Royal Harare Golf Club, until later in the afternoon.
He said he wanted to familiarise himself with Zimbabwe’s court procedures before making a ruling.
During the brief proceedings, Kunonga, dressed in a maroon cassock with a silver crucifix around his neck, sat beside his lawyer and threw defiant glances around the courtroom.
State media on Thursday claimed the trial was ”politically motivated”.
Kunonga was slapped with an European Union travel ban shortly after his controversial appointment as Harare’s top Anglican cleric in 2001.
The ban also includes Mugabe and dozens of his associates.
The Anglican bishop, unlike most church leaders, has been a vocal proponent of the sometimes-violent seizure of white-owned farms since 2000.
He is reported to have received at least one white-owned farm since the launch of the programme.
”Bishop Kunonga’s pan-African stance has not won him many friends in the white community that now wants him to be excommunicated from the Church of England,” said a report in Thursday’s state-controlled Herald newspaper. — Sapa-DPA