Mugabe's pal Van Hoogstraten to splash on Zim charities

HOOGSTRATEN

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By Staff Reporter

PROPERTY tycoon and President Robert Mugabe's main foreign financial backer Nicholas van Hoogstraten is set to splash thousands of pounds on Zimbnabwean charities after a court awarded him £500,000 from the family of a Sutton businessman he was once convicted of killing.

Van Hoogstraten owns vast land interests in Zimbabwe and recently set-up an office in Harare. The Sunday Times newspaper reported recently that he was planning on moving to Harare permanently.

"I don't need it but it's my money and if I choose to give it away I'll choose one of the charities I support in Zimbabwe, not that family," Hoogstraten said Thursday from his Sussex home.

The family of Mohammed Raja, who was murdered at his Mulgrave Road home in 1999, must pay him an initial £90,000 within two months, a judge ruled last week.

It is to cover the legal expenses of van Hoogstraten's successful appeal against a £5million lawsuit filed by the Rajas.

Raja's son Amjad said the family was disappointed by the court's decision but vowed to continue court action against van Hoogstraten.

"It's true the legal expenses are taking a toll on us," he said. "But if we give up now our father would have died in vain."

Raja had been suing van Hoogstraten, a former business partner, when he was shot dead by two men who, it was claimed at an Old Bailey criminal trial, were acting as agents for van Hoogstraten.

Despite being sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2002 for manslaughter, van Hoogstraten's conviction was set aside by the Court of Appeal earlier this year.

Gunmen David Croke and Robert Knapp are currently serving life sentences for Raja's murder.

The Raja family continued with the £5million claim and a High Court judge imposed severe penalties on van Hoogstraten after he failed to comply with court orders to disclose his assets.

The orders, which saw his assets frozen worldwide, were overturned by appeal court judges in July.
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