Tsvangirai acquitted of plot to kill Mugabe

Tsvangirai acquitted of plot to kill Mugabe

TSVANGIRAI: Not guilty

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By Staff Reporters

ZIMBABWEAN opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was sensationally cleared of an attempt to assasinate President Robert Mugabe by a High Court judge on Friday morning.

Justice Paddington Garwe, sitting with assessors, said the State had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt before finding for Tsvangirai.

The ruling sparked wild scenes of celebration in Harare, just hours after police dispersed a crowd of Tsvangirai's supporters outside Harare's High Court.

"People are ecstatic," William Bango, Tsvangirai's spokesman said. "Everyone is celebrating, the police can't control the crowds now."

Talking by telephone to the BBC, Tsvangirai said his was a "political trial".

"There was no case, that is a fact. I feel vindicated. This was a hurdle we had to overcome and this will be a serious morale boost on our party and supporters."

Tsvangirai, on trial for his life for high treason, has always rejected a conspiracy to assassinate President Robert Mugabe or stage a putsch.

"Even on a benevolent interpretation of the indictment the state has failed to prove any conspiracy to assassinate President Mugabe or to bring about a coup d'etat," said renowned South African lawyer George Bizos at the close of the trial.

In his closing arguments of the high-profile year-long trial, Bizos said no overt act of treason had been committed, and that even if there was a suggestion of a "discussion" of it, that was not sufficient to lead to a conviction.

The prosecution was basing its case on evidence from a grainy videotape of a meeting between Tsvangirai and Canadian political consultant Ari Ben Menashe, who became the state's key witness.

Bizos dismissed the videotape, saying it was inaudible and that the state had failed to produce the original.

"The videotape does not in fact disclose any request for the assassination or coup," Bizos told the court.

Even transcripts of the meeting, Bizos said, showed no explicit reference to an assassination, a military coup or the creation of a transitional government by unconstitutional means.

Menashe 'a liar'

"If a question is put: What was discussed? Could anyone say with any degree of honesty that the accused was seeking the elimination of Mugabe with the assistance of the army?" asked Bizos.

Bizos repeatedly referred to Ben Menashe as a "liar" who was out to get money.

"Menashe lied from start to finish ... and when this is added to his dubious background and behaviour ... there can be no question whatsoever but that his evidence should be rejected out of hand," he said.

"The payments and luxury treatment afforded to state witnesses was quite improper. The first class travel, hotel fees ... there was temptation to lie and please the paymaster."

Ben Menashe was put up in five-star hotels for the several weeks that he was in Harare testifying against Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai, a former union leader who formed the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 1999 to challenge Mugabe, says the government trumped up the treason charges against him in a bid to frame and discredit him ahead of a presidential election in 2002.

He lost the elections, which were discredited by international observers who said they were rigged and marred by political violence.

Tsvangirai said he had hired Ben Menashe's firm to help with international lobbying and fundraising for his party, but later discovered the government had also hired it. Just last week, Tsvangirai began moves to sue Ben Menashe in Canada for US$3 million.
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