Zimbabwe police have detained a prominent human rights and media lawyer over a letter in which he accused the police of forcing an arms dealer to testify against his friend and top politician Roy Bennett who is facing terrorism charges.
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) said lawyer Mordecai Mahlangu was arrested on Monday for allegedly obstructing the course of justice after he wrote to attorney general Johannes Tomana protesting a subpoena that was issued to Peter Hirschman, directing him to testify against Bennett.
Mahlangu’s letter said Hirschmann’s statements were extracted through torture.
Hirschman is being forced to testify as a state witness against the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) deputy agriculture minister-designate even though he has already told the courts that he has no evidence against Bennett.
The firearms dealer was arrested for allegedly plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe in 2006 but was later acquitted in court.
Bennett is facing charges of possession of weapons with the intention to commit insurgency, sabotage, terrorism, and banditry.
The MDC and Bennett maintain the charges are trumped up. Several other MDC officials, including Co-Home Affairs Minister Giles Mutsekwa, were also arrested in connection with this alleged case but their case fell apart.
Bennet’s trial is one of the issues that have led to the current impasse between Mugabe’s ZANU PF and the MDC led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai has since October 16 refused to cooperate with Mugabe whom he accuses of being a “dishonest partner”.
Source African Press Agency
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