A Zimbabwean judge who had ruled in favour of President Robert Mugabe’s opponents has been found guilty of corruption, local reports said on Wednesday.
High Court Judge Benjamin Paradza was arrested in February 2003 for allegedly trying to persuade a fellow judge to release the passport of a white business associate who was awaiting trial on murder charges, The Herald newspaper said.
In what became a highly-controversial case, Zimbabwean judge Maphios Cheda secretly taped a telephone conversation he had with Paradza in which the latter allegedly explained that he stood to lose money if his French partner in a safari-hunting venture, Russell Labuschagne, was prevented from travelling to Europe.
Labuschagne was later convicted of murdering a fisherman who was poaching on his property. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Handing down judgement on Tuesday, Justice Simpson Mutambanengwe said he ”found the evidence of the two key witnesses overwhelming against Paradza to safely convict him on the main charges,” the paper said.
The first Zimbabwean judge ever to be convicted, Paradza maintained he was not guilty. He said he was being victimised for handing down judgements unfavourable to Mugabe’s government.
In February 2002, he ruled that eviction orders served on 50 white farmers were illegal, while in January 2003 he ordered the release of Harare’s opposition mayor Elias Mudzuri after he was arrested for allegedly holding a meeting with residents without police permission.
Mudzuri has since been suspended from office and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)-led council replaced by a state-appointed commission. Most of Zimbabwe’s white farmers have also been forced to leave their farms.
In a sign of just how sensitive Paradza’s case was, fellow judges refused to try him and Justice Mutambanengwe had to be recalled from Namibia, where he serves on the Supreme Court bench.
Mugabe set up an international tribunal two years ago comprising judges from Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi to investigate Paradza.
Paradza’s defence challenged the composition of the tribunal last year, but lost the case.
Paradza risks a three-year jail term or a fine. The court is due to hear arguments in mitigation on Friday. – Sapa-DPA