The state of Zimbabwe has withdrawn charges against an opposition MP and two party officials, arrested over an arms cache linked to a plot to overthrow President Robert Mugabe, and freed the three, their lawyer said on Wednesday.
”Giles Mutseyekwa, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) member of parliament, and two other accused had their case withdrawn before plea,” the lawyer told Agence France-Presse in a telephone interview from the eastern city of Mutare.
”Initially, Mutseyekwa had been granted bail but we were surprised to be informed that the case had been withdrawn … when we had brought the money for bail.”
The three had also been accused of plotting to assassinate Mugabe, a charge that the state also withdrew, according to the lawyer.
The police had charged them under the country’s tough security laws, with possession of weapons to carry out an insurgency, sabotage or terrorism.
Zimbabwean police last week arrested Mutseyekwa and seven others after security agents had arrested one of the suspects, identified as Mike Peter Hitschmann, over an arms cache found at his home in Mutare.
Hitschmann and three others are still in detention, Manda said.
The state claimed that Hitschmann was working for a shadowy organisation called the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement based in Britain, which it said is seeking to overthrow Mugabe’s government.
Following the arms discovery, state media reports claimed that police were also looking for another MDC legislator, Roy Bennett, who had allegedly fled to South Africa.
”He is believed to have fled through the undesignated entry points along the Zimbabwe/Mozambique border,” the government-run daily The Herald reported on Wednesday.
”The points are used by notorious armed robbers to smuggle stolen cars.”
However, the lawyer said Bennett had not been arrested.
Police, meanwhile, refused to comment.
”We are not saying anything on the arms cache matter,” police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena said, adding: ”We also do not have any comment on the whereabouts of Bennett.”
The state said it had found an arsenal at Hitschmann’s house, which comprised a Kalashnikov 47 assault rifle, seven Uzi machine guns, four FN rifles, 11 shotguns, six CZ pistols, four revolvers, 15 tear gas canisters and several thousand rounds of ammunition. — Sapa-AFP