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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Zim Finance Minister seeks court protection as he faces probe |
| 2011-07-13 |
| [Daily Nation (Kenya)] Zim-bob-we's Finance Minister Tendai Biti has filed three separate High Court applications to bar police from obtaining his mobile phone records amid allegations that he is being investigated for alleged fraud. The police serious fraud squad approached the country's largest mobile phone operator and threatened its managers with arrest if they did not hand over the minister's phone activity, state media reported on Tuesday. Mr Biti who is also the secretary general of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has argued that the release of the phone records would amount to harassment and an infringement of his fundamental rights. He said he had not committed any offence that would warrant the release of the information. "I fear that should the respondent (Econet) be bullied into submission, my constitutional right to privacy would be unjustifiably interfered with and in addition, vital information pertaining to the organizations I am heading will be unlawfully accessed," Mr Biti said in one his court applications. "I am a government minister and a legal practitioner of this honourable court and I have committed no criminal offence. "I have not been investigated of any offence and the basis upon which the warrant may well have been obtained was clearly false." Four Ministry of Finance officials were last week tossed in the calaboose but were released on bail on Monday. The officials are allegedly accused of going on unsanctioned foreign trips and flouting tender procedures. According to a government paper, the Sunday Mail, one of them Ms Petronella Chishawa was accused of having an extra marital affair with Mr Biti. The minister denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not! and has threatened to sue the newspaper. Zim-bob-wean police have been accused of persecuting President Bob MuggsyMugabe Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... 's opponents. At the weekend, three government ministers from the smaller from the smaller MDC faction were briefly jugged for allegedly holding an unsanctioned meeting. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Raided by the "serious fraud squad"? As opposed to what? The "minor fraud squad" or "frivolous fraud squad"? |
| Posted by: American Delight 2011-07-13 00:26 |