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Media blackout in Zim trial
22/06/2007 13:59 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe's High Court ruled on
Friday that hearings in the case of five men accused of plotting
to topple President Robert Mugabe would be closed to the public
and media.
The five, who deny the charges, were arrested in Harare in
May and charged with treason.
At the start of the men's bail applications on Friday, Judge
Tedius Karwi ordered the media and members of the public be
barred from the court after prosecutors argued the case dealt
with "sensitive matters".
"I am of the opinion that the state is right, this is a
sensitive matter and in the interest of the state and the
generality of the public and because investigations are still
under way, I therefore order that the court be cleared," Karwi
said.
Defence lawyer Jonathan Samkange argued open proceedings
were in the public interest.
"It is not in the national interest or public interest that
the public ought not to know what is happening...in a democratic
state it's the right of all stakeholders, the accused, their
families and the press to know what is happening here," Samkange said.
Critics say Mugabe has tended to use coup and terrorism
charges against opponents to divert attention from an economic
meltdown that has pushed the inflation rate - already the
highest in the world - above 3 700%t.
Prosecutors say the accused wanted to use soldiers to take
over the government and military bases, after which they would
have replaced Mugabe with Rural Housing and Social Amenities
Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mnangagwa was not among those arrested and told a local
independent newspaper that any suggestion he was linked to a
coup plot was "stupid".
In March, Mugabe said some senior officials in his ZANU-PF
party were plotting his ouster with the help of Western powers
critical of his rule.
Mnangagwa, an ally of Mugabe since the 1970s liberation war,
heads one of the two main Zanu-PF factions while the other backs
Vice President Joyce Mujuru.
- Reuters
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Zimbabwe Special Report
