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East/Subsaharan Africa
Zimbabwe Opposition Leader Back in Court
2003-06-13
HARARE - Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai sought release from jail Thursday with his defense lawyers arguing that treason charges he faces are a ploy to stop his political activities. Tsvangirai, a leading opponent of increasingly authoritarian President Robert Mugabe, was jailed June 6 after a week of protests that all but shut down the economy. "Due to the efforts of liberation movements, detention without trial has been taken off the statute books," Defense lawyer George Bizoshe said during the bail hearing, referring to the laws that favored whites in power until after Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain more than 20 years ago.
Mighty convenient that Bob dusted this one off.
The treason charges against Tsvangirai center on two political rallies last month at which the state claims he urged supporters to take to the streets to oust Mugabe and the Zimbabwean government. Bizos showed a video tape of one of the opposition rallies cited in the charges that he said proved Tsvangirai told supporters to demonstrate peacefully. "Since time immemorial, kings and presidents have yearned to silence opponents preferably occupying a cold and uncomfortable prison cell," Bizos told Judge Susan Mavangira on the second day of the High Court bail hearing. "It is too convenient a tool against political opponents to keep them in jail on unproved allegations." State prosecutors said they will oppose Tsvangirai's bail application on Friday and he was returned to jail for a seventh night Thursday.

The opposition says Mugabe is responsible for the country's worst political and economic crisis since independence in 1980. Foreign aid, investment and loans have dried up amid political violence, state-orchestrated human rights abuses, the seizure of thousands of white-owned farms and the disputed presidential election. Last week's anti-government protests and strikes spurred a massive riot crackdown by security thugs forces. Tsvangirai, a trade unionist-turned politician, has been increasingly vocal and defiant in his criticism of Mugabe's 23-year rule. He lost to Mugabe in a crooked disputed presidential election last year that Western governments have called deeply flawed, and is challenging the election in court. The opposition has promised to hold more anti-government protests. International food aid has averted mass starvation, but Zimbabwe still faces nearly 300 percent annual inflation, 70 percent unemployment and acute shortages of gasoline, medicines and other essential imports.
Life in Bob's paradise.
Posted by:Steve White

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