Zim hunts down fleeing bank tycoons

Zim hunts down fleeing bank tycoons

GIDEON GONO: Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank chief has caused a financial sector clean-up since taking over last year

• Amnesty for Zim banks

• End of era for forex dealers

• Gono new RBZ governor

• Tea boy to national purse

By Agencies

ZIMBABWE'S police commissioner Augustine Chihuri says he has sent senior officers to Britain to hunt down prominent bankers and businessmen who fled President Robert Mugabe's blitz on white collar crime - which critics say is a smokescreen for a political witchhunt.

Chihuri said he had formally asked Interpol for the extradition of four prominent Zimbabwean bankers and three members of the country's wealthiest Asian family, the Joshis.

The Joshis were until recently closely associated with top members of Mugabe's politburo on the boards of ruling Zanu-PF party companies.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change claims "selective justice" is being applied, with the government targeting associates of rival factions in the race to succeed Mugabe, 80.

"Internationally, Britain is becoming the only country which is establishing itself as a safe haven for our local criminals," Chihuri told the government-run Sunday Mail.

"They (the British) are creating lame excuses for not wanting to co-operate and facilitate the return of the criminals," said Chihuri, adding that he had also sent officers to South Africa to investigate the hijacking of trucks containing billions of dollars of platinum and nickel on its way to refineries. - Sapa-DPA
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