Authorities in Zimbabwe on Wednesday imposed new charges on Roy Bennett, a top aide to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, as he entered court for his treason trial.
The new charges related to breaching grain trade laws
Police summoned Bennett, a former white tobacco farmer, to appear in a lower court next week to answer charges of contravening the Grain Marketing Board Act.
According to the summons, on October 22 2001, Bennett was “unlawfully found in possession of 92 289 metric tonnes of maize, which he did not declare to authorities, in terms of the Grain Marketing Board Act.”
His lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa described the new charges as “harassment”.
“They are anticipating that he will be acquitted and now they serve him with this,” Mtetwa told journalists outside court.
Bennett said the maize was meant to feed workers at his farm and that it was seized by soldiers.
Bennett was Tsvangirai’s pick for deputy agriculture minister in the power-sharing government, formed last year with President Robert Mugabe.
He is currently accused of plotting to assassinate Mugabe in 2006, in a conspiracy already dismissed by the courts in an earlier case.
His trial has been a major source of conflict in the fragile unity accord.
It also prompted Tsavangirai’s decision to temporarily boycott the power-sharing government with Mugabe’s camp, which he accused of being “dishonest and unreliable”.
Mugabe had maintained that he must be cleared by courts before he joins government.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s High Court on Wednesday deferred its decision on whether to drop terrorism charges against Bennett due to a delay in preparing the trial transcript.
Bennett faces a possible death sentence if convicted of illegal possession of arms for purposes of committing terrorism, banditry and sabotage.
Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change says the charges are politically motivated. — AFP, Reuters