Zim arrests senior officials
30/12/2004 12:56  - (SA)  

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Harare - A senior official in President Robert Mugabe's party and Zimbabwe's new ambassador to Mozambique have been arrested on charges of spying, daily papers reported on Thursday.

Phillip Chiyangwa, a provincial chairman of Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) and Godfrey Dzvairo, newly appointed Zimbabwe's ambassador to Mozambique, are being charged under the country's official secrets law.

They are alleged to have passed on Zimbabwe's state secrets to as yet unnamed foreign countries.

Chiyangwa, who is also a lawmaker and Dzvairo, former consul-general at Zimbabwe's embassy in South Africa, is charged along with Zanu-PF's director for external affairs, Itai Marchi and Tendi Matambanadzo, a director of a localy owned bank, Metropolitan.

Perverting the course of justice

The four appeared in court late on Wednesday, according to the state daily Herald and the independent Daily Mirror, but the hearing was held behind closed doors.

Before the court session was closed to the public, Chiyangwa's lawyers reportedly complained over the "humiliating" conditions under which the outspoken politician has been held since his arrest by state security, some two weeks ago.

According to his lawyer Canaan Dube, quoted by the Daily Mirror, his health reportedly "seriously deteriorated to the extent that he suffered a mild stroke".

The lawyers were not immediately available to comment.

In February, Chiyangwa, was arrested and spent more than a week in police holding cells on charges of trying to pervert the course of justice in a major banking scam.

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