Zimbabwe accused of withholding evidence

The Zimbabwean government has failed to hand over evidence that it paid the key witness in a treason trial who has testified that the opposition leader tried to assassinate President Robert Mugabe, defence lawyers argued today.

Invoices, expense vouchers and other information submitted by Montreal-based consultant Ari Ben Menashe to the government were sought, but never provided, the defence team of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai told the Harare High Court.

The financial records might point to collusion by Ben Menashe with the Zimbabwe government to entrap Tsvangirai and two senior opposition colleagues with treason, the lawyers said.

The opposition politicians deny the charges and say Ben Menashe Menashe framed them. They face the death penalty if convicted.

Throughout the trial, now in its second week, lead defence lawyer George Bizos has argued Ben Menashe was already being paid by the Zimbabwe government before he met with Tsvangirai.

Ben Menashe has testified that it was only after his meetings with Tsvangirai that he signed a contract with Zimbabwe’s security ministry.

Ben Menashe said today he did not have copies of invoices prepared by his Montreal-based firm.

“This is Zimbabwe government material. They have them. They will do what they wish,” he told the court.

Chief state prosecutor Bharat Patel told Bizos he had asked for the documents for the trial but also had not received them from the government.

Last week Ben Menashe said he received €186,500 from the government soon after providing a secretly recorded videotape which he said would incriminate Tsvangirai in a murder and coup plot against Mugabe.

He signed a consultancy contract with the government on 10 January 2002, more than a month after the grainy 4 1/2-hour video was made on December 4 and handed over to the government a day later.

Ben Menashe has denied he was paid for a sting operation but said he decided to go along with overtures from Tsvangirai to overthrow Mugabe so he could report it to Zimbabwe authorities.

Ben Menashe said today he “possibly” received another €388,000 from the government as part of €1m (€930,000) promised under its contract with him.

He denied failing to report the payments to the US Justice Department as required under rules covering political lobbyists or consultants registered in the United States.

Bizos said US records would show the Montreal firm reported receiving only £31,000 from Zimbabwe.