Zimbabwe: Opposition leader charged with treason

Zimbabwe’s opposition leader has been charged with treason less than two weeks before the presidential elections that threaten to end nearly 22 years of Robert Mugabe’s rule.

Yesterday’s charges against Morgan Tsvangirai, who heads the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, and two other party leaders, marks the latest twist in an election campaign fraught with violence blamed mainly on Mugabe supporters.

Tsvangirai, who represents the biggest threat to Mugabe’s grip on power, was released after two hours of questioning by police on alleged plans to assassinate the president ahead of the March 9-10 polls. Treason is punishable by death.

Meanwhile, South African observers railed against the police for not protecting opposition supporters from attacks by ruling party activists.

Asked about the treason charges, Richard Boucher, spokesman for the US State Department, said: ‘‘This falls against a backdrop of a very well-documented campaign of violence and intimidation against the opposition.

‘‘We’re aware of no convincing evidence that there’s any basis for these allegations. It just appears to be another tragic example of President Mugabe’s increasingly authoritarian rule, his government’s apparent determination to intimidate and repress the opposition....’’

In two recent incidents, election monitors were themselves the targets of violence by Mugabe loyalists.

Tsvangirai said police told him he would be summoned to appear in court at an unspecified later date.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed treason charges had been made, but would give no further details.

Tsvangirai said he was freed with no restrictions on his movements and would continue with his election campaign.

He said he was formally charged with a plot to kill Mugabe along with two senior party colleagues, secretary-general Welshman Ncube and shadow agriculture minister Renson Gasela.

‘‘Of course, I denied it completely. The timing is obvious. This was all along part of the ZANU-PF (ruling party) strategy to eliminate me from the race,’’ Tsvangirai said.

Ncube and Gasela have not yet been questioned by the police.

Tsvangirai’s lawyer, Innocent Chagonda, said it was ‘‘highly improbable’’ the state could continue with the case before the election.

Tsvangirai described the allegations as ‘‘political drama of the highest order’’ by Mugabe and the state media.

Mugabe said last week that he would not have Tsvangirai arrested before the elections despite allegations of the assassination plot.

The government claims Tsvangirai met members a Montreal-based political consulting firm last year to arrange for the ‘‘elimination’’ of Mugabe.

Ten days ago, the firm released a secretly recorded video tape of a December 4 meeting in Montreal which they said incriminated Tsvangirai.

Zimbabwe’s state media has given wide coverage to the allegations first made by Ari Ben-Menashe who heads the Canadian consulting firm Dickens and Madson.

Tsvangirai said he met four times with the firm and hired them to lobby abroad for his party. He said his recorded remarks were taken out of context.

On the tape, Ben-Menashe, in the presence of Tsvangirai, says: ‘‘The MDC, represented by the top man who’s sitting here right now, commits to ... the coup d’etat or the elimination of the president.’’

Later in the tape, Tsvangirai says: ‘‘We have moved so far, we can now definitely say that Mugabe is going to be eliminated. But what is the transitional arrangement?’’

A local media monitoring group said the recording had been heavily edited and rearranged.

Mugabe has told supporters at campaign rallies he knew of the alleged plot last year but did nothing to have Tsvangirai arrested ‘‘for fear of plunging the country into chaos’’ ahead of the vote.

State television’s nightly news devoted 35 minutes to the allegations and only 15 seconds to Tsvangirai’s denial, the Mass Media Project said.

Ben-Menashe left Harare on Sunday after meeting with police and members of the Central Intelligence Organisation.

Ben-Menashe, who has claimed to be a former Israeli intelligence agent, was acquitted by a US federal jury in 1990 of charges he illegally arranged a US$36m (€41m) deal to sell US-made military cargo planes to Iran in exchange for the release of four American hostages in the Middle East.

State media on Sunday described Ben-Menashe as ‘‘a man of indisputable credibility’’.

Tsvangirai’s motorcade has been attacked at least three times in the last two years since political violence began in the run up to the June 2000 parliamentary elections.

One Friday, police fired tear gas and shots at opposition vehicles in southern Zimbabwe, the opposition said. Tsvangirai, who travels in an armoured vehicle, was not hurt.

Over the past two years, Zimbabwe has been wracked by political violence, which human rights workers, opposition officials and international observers blame mainly on ruling party militants’ efforts to intimidate opposition supporters in advance of the election.