Judge fled in freight truck
26/01/2006 15:12  - (SA)  

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Zimbabwe Special Report  Latest Zimbabwe Stories

Harare - A Zimbabwean High Court judge, who skipped bail while awaiting sentencing for corruption, escaped to South Africa hidden in a freight truck, a local newspaper reported on Thursday.

The independent Financial Gazette weekly quoted Zimbabwe intelligence officials as saying Judge Benjamin Paradza was believed to have travelled onward to Britain to seek political asylum.

Police in Zimbabwe could not confirm Paradza's whereabouts on Thursday.

Paradza, who had a reputation for ruling against the government, was forced to surrender his passport under his bail conditions.

He was convicted earlier this month of trying to influence two fellow judges to release the passport of his business partner, who was charged with murder in the 2003 killing of a poacher on their shared ranch.

Paradza's partner was sentenced to 15 years in jail for the 2003 killing.

Charges were brought against Paradza soon after he ordered the release of a jailed opposition politician in 2003.

Harare Mayor Elias Mudzuri, of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, was arrested on charges of addressing an illegal political meeting.

But Paradza concluded Mudzuri was conducting routine municipal business in the Harare township of Mabvuku.

Critics accuse President Robert Mugabe's increasingly autocratic government of undermining the judiciary by packing the courts with sympathetic judges and intimidating independent-minded officials.

Eight judges have resigned and two taken early retirement after coming under pressure for ruling against the government.

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