A legislator from Zimbabwe’s embattled opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Tuesday appeared in court on charges of conspiracy to cause public violence in connection with an attack on the country’s only white female MP, a lawyer said.
Timothy Mubawu, who belongs to a faction of the MDC loyal to founder leader Morgan Tsvangirai, handed himself in to the police on Monday, eight days after the attack on Trudy Stevenson.
Stevenson, a member of a rival MDC faction, sustained broken arm and wrist bones, a fractured cheekbone and a deep gash to her head in the attack, which has proved deeply damaging to Zimbabwe’s fractured opposition forces.
A Harare magistrate is to rule on Mubawu’s bail application on Wednesday, said lawyer Alec Muchadehama. Mubawu was not asked to plead, the lawyer told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
Official newspapers have reported that Mubawu’s truck was used as a getaway vehicle by the mob that attacked Stevenson and four of her colleagues near Harare’s eastern Mabvuku township. Mubawu is the MDC MP for Mabvuku and Tafara townships.
The Tsvangirai-led faction of the MDC has complained that the ruling party and others are trying to make political capital out of the incident. The faction has promised an independent inquiry into the attack. — Sapa-dpa