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Zim to appeal acquittal
31/10/2004 12:47 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe will appeal against the recent acquittal of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on charges of plotting to kill President Robert Mugabe before elections in 2002, a state-run newspaper reported on Sunday.
The Sunday Mail quoted the government's top lawyer as saying it would appeal in mid-November against the judgment two weeks ago that cleared Tsvangirai of a charge which could have carried the death sentence.
"Certainly by the middle of November we would have filed the appeal," acting Attorney General Bharat Patel told the paper, adding that the judgment "has many flaws and we don't think it should stand unchallenged".
Two weeks ago the Zimbabwe High Court ruled that the state had failed to prove its case against the 52-year old opposition leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), after a year-long trial in which the state produced around a dozen witnesses.
The court found that nowhere in the state's main evidence - a fuzzy, partly inaudible video of a secretly-filmed meeting between Tsvangirai and a Canada-based political consultant - was Tsvangirai heard to request Mugabe's "elimination".
Acquittal greeted with jubilation
Tsvangirai's acquittal was greeted with jubilation by his party, and the former trade unionist promptly launched a tour of the region aimed at getting the help of other leaders to pressure Mugabe to bring in key electoral reforms.
Zimbabwe is due to hold parliamentary polls in March. The MDC says it will not take part without changes to the electoral playing field in line with guidelines set by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Last week Tsvangirai met with Mauritian premier Paul Berenger, chairman of the influential body, as well as President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, who chairs the SADC organ on politics, security and defence.
"Fresh trouble for Tsvangirai" announced the headline in the Sunday Mail. It reported that the government would, among other things, challenge part of the ruling that dealt with "what constitutes treason".
Meanwhile, the opposition says Tsvangirai is due to travel to several other countries in the region and throughout Africa, according to a report in the private Standard newspaper.
The party's secretary general, Welshman Ncube told the paper that Tsvangirai, who is presently back in the country, intended to travel to Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia.
- AFP
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