Mugabe ropes in Interpol
2004-09-14 20:30
Harare - Zimbabwe has asked Interpol to help find fugitive Zimbabwean businessmen accused of economic crimes, state radio reported on Tuesday.
Senior Zimbabwe police officers investigating several senior bank executives have already been assigned to visit Britain and South Africa in connection with economic cases.
The radio said President Robert Mugabe promised that executives accused of crimes, including black market currency deals that hurt the country's economic development, would eventually be brought to justice in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe has an extradition treaty with South Africa, but the president acknowledged that Britain, the former colonial power he routinely accuses of campaigning for his ouster, was unlikely to extradite fugitives.
"Criminals are criminals. Does it augur well for Britain to keep the criminals?" Mugabe said.
Allowed detention of up to 28 days
None of six of Zimbabwe's best-known banking executives who have fled to Britain this year have been charged with any crime in their absence.
The private National Merchant Bank, which had been accused of transacting hard-currency deals at unofficial exchange rates, said most of the executives had fled from a presidential decree in March that allowed detention of economic crime suspects for up to 28 days without the option of bail.
Under law, the option of bail must be given in court within 48 hours of arrest.
The fugitives have described Mugabe's decree as a violation of constitutional rights guaranteeing liberty and enabling them to co-operate in investigations, particularly into complex financial affairs.
Would serve as a propaganda ploy
Mugabe opponents say the decree was seen as a way to send some of the most successful businessmen, many critical of the government's economic policies, to filthy and overcrowded prisons.
It also would serve as a propaganda ploy to show the government was fighting high-level crime and black-marketeering, opponents say.
The drive against executive crime appears to be faltering under pressure from the country's wealthiest and most-powerful political figures, lawyers say.
Of three ruling party politicians arrested in connection with economic crimes, two have been freed.
- AP