British photographer says Mugabe's wife attacked him

A British photographer said today that the wife of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe punched him repeatedly in the face after he tried to take pictures of her near a luxury hotel in Hong Kong earlier this week.

Richard Jones said that Grace Mugabe, 43, ordered a bodyguard to hold him down and then attacked him herself on Thursday near the Shangri-La hotel on Hong Kong’s Kowloon peninsula.

“She directed several punches into my face,” Mr Jones said. “She was wearing diamond-encrusted rings, which caused a lot of lacerations.”

Mr Jones, 42, from Machen in South Wales, was on a freelance assignment for The Sunday Times.

He said he suffered at least 10 cuts to his face but did not require hospital treatment.

“She was screaming, completely crazy,” The Sunday Times quoted a witness, Austrian tourist Werner Zapletal, as saying in a report Sunday.

Police spokeswoman Odelia Tam said police are investigating the alleged attack but have not made any arrests. She said she did not know the identity of the alleged attacker.

Zimbabwe’s first lady was holidaying in Hong Kong and visiting her daughter Bona, who is studying in the Chinese-ruled former British colony, The Sunday Times said.

Zimbabwe is suffering from a cholera crisis that has killed 2,200 people and an economic meltdown that has seen inflation officially put at 231 million per cent.

Despite the country’s political and economic difficulties, Grace Mugabe went ahead with a vacation in Asia, spending time in the Malaysian island resort Langkawi and Singapore before arriving in Hong Kong, The Sunday Times said. Robert Mugabe joined his wife in Singapore for a few days, the newspaper said.