Zimbabwe police want to press fresh charges of treason against opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party activists cleared last month on charges of plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe, authoritative sources told ZimOnline.
Senior officials at the attorney general’s (AG) department on Wednesday said the police last week approached AG Sobuza Gula-Ndebele and told him that they had unearthed fresh evidence that white gun seller Peter Hitschmann and MDC treasurer Roy Bennett had plotted to blow up the country’s internet hub at Melfort, less than 50km east of Harare.
The officials, who spoke on condition they were not named, said the police told Gula-Ndebele that they had found correspondence in Hitschmann’s mail box and on his personal computer indicating the plan to bomb Melfort.
”Police have indicated to Gula-Ndebele that they found mail between Bennett and Hitschmann which could be used to prove the treason charges,” said a senior officer in the public prosecutions division at the AG’s department.
Gula-Ndebele — who is said to have last month forced the police to withdraw charges of plotting to kill Mugabe against Hitschmann, MDC secretary for defence Giles Mutsekwa and five other activists of the opposition party for lack evidence — could not be reached for comment on the matter.
But our sources said the AG had told the police he would need to review the evidence first before deciding whether to prosecute the MDC activists on the fresh treason charge.
Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena refused to take questions on the matter, saying he could not discuss with the press an issue that was still under investigation.
But our sources say the police claim that information gleaned from Hitschmann’s letters and from his laptop computer indicated that he was to supply the weapons to be used to blow up Melfort while Bennett was to raise funds for the operation as well as recruit cadres from the MDC to carry out the sabotage.
The police last month arrested MDC secretary for defence Giles Mutsekwa and five other activists of the opposition party after discovering what they said was an illegal arms cache at the home of Hitschmann in Mutare city.
Hitschmann, who is not an MDC member, was also arrested although the police could not apprehend Bennett after he reportedly fled to South Africa.
The police alleged Hitschmann and the MDC activists had wanted to use the guns to commit acts of banditry and that they also plotted a spill along the Harare-to-Mutare highway to make it slippery so that Mugabe — who the opposition activists allegedly assumed would drive to Mutare for his birthday celebrations — would overturn in his vehicle and die.
But the charges had to be withdrawn against the MDC activists for lack of evidence although Hitschmann remains in custody after the police altered charges against him to strengthen their case. The police are now charging the gun dealer under the Firearms Act. — ZimOnline