New twist in Mnangagwa's 'dirty gold' case

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By Agencies
28/03/04
ARRESTED gold dealer Mark Matthew Burden has claimed that police tortured him to implicate Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa and Mines Minister July Moyo in his illegal gold dealings.

In a sworn affidavit made on Friday, Burden makes sensational allegations of how — on February 20 — police used electrical shocks to his genitals to force him to admit to the involvement of both Mnangagwa and Moyo in his illegal gold deals.

“The pain was excruciating, consistent, persistent and unending. He indicated that this torture would continue until such time that I confessed the Honourable Speaker and the Honourable Minister’s involvement,” Burden says in the affidavit made available to The Standard, of the man who tortured him.

“Despite the torture I could not betray the truth as these two honourable members were never at any stage whatsoever involved in my gold business,” Burden says.

Burden claims the torture occurred at Harare Central Police Station, saying it had lasted an hour and was preceded by 13 hours of interrogation.

Police re-arrested Burden months after a Kwekwe magistrate controversially released him. Burden is facing 46 counts of breaching the Gold Trade Act. Police accuse him of illegally buying and selling gold and that he also illegally exported the precious metal from his Ivan Hoe Mine in Kwekwe, where he also runs eight gold mills.

The gold dealer says he was transferred from Marlborough Police Station cells to Harare gold squad where the interrogation began at 10 AM on the day he was arrested.

He was then taken to the Harare Central’s homicide section after 4 PM, where the interrogation continued up to 8 PM, only to be interrupted by a two-hour break his alleged interrogators took between 4 PM and 6 PM.

One of his interrogators, Burden claims, left shortly after 8 PM threatening to “come back later with more valour”.

The unidentified officer returned at around 11 PM visibly drunk, Burden further alleges, and ordered that his clothes be removed and that his hands be cuffed behind his back.

The officer then produced a “military jersey” which was wrapped tightly around the head so that breathing became difficult, says Burden.

“He proceeded to force my legs open and thereafter fitted a round clamp on the foreskin of my penis. He then tied an electrical cable around my right big toe. Having done that he started questioning me about the Honourable Speaker ED Mnangagwa and the Honourable Minister July Moyo’s involvement in my gold dealing business,” Burden says.

Burden says “the more I denied their involvement, the harder he cranked the electrical current”. The torture only ended after the officer felt Burden’s heart was beating too fast.

Police Spokesman Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena yesterday said if Burden had any complaints against the police, he should inform the courts.

“There is a trial that’s going on”, Bvudzijena said. “So he can present his case to the magistrate”.

Burden claims he “painfully narrated” his ordeal to his lawyer George Chikumbirike but says he had “begged him (Chikumbirike) not to disclose the incident to any other person whatsoever as I feared for my life”.

Yesterday Chikumbirike denied knowledge of either Burden’s alleged torture or the affidavit, saying his involvement with Burden did not extend outside the ongoing criminal trial.

“I was not a participant in the drafting of the affidavit. I only represent him in the criminal trial. Anything else, I don’t know”, Chikumbirike said.

However, Burden’s Kwekwe lawyer Josiniah Maupa confirmed that the affidavit in the possession of The Standard was authentic.

A Harare magistrate hearing Burden’s trial last week interdicted the Press from revealing the identity of a leading political figure named in court proceedings.

From the Standard.
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