The multitudes of sane Zimbabweans who voiced their displeasure at the persecution of MDC-T Treasurer General have been vindicated by High Court Judge Chinembiri Bhunu’s acquittal of Roy Bennett in the Harare High Court today 10 May 2010.
The eagerly awaited outcome of the case in which the MDC-T Treasurer General was facing quashed insurgency, banditry and terrorism charges emanating from a case dating back to 2006.
It all started when Mutare arms dealer Peter Michael Hitschmann was battered by CIO and Army interrogators into implicating Roy Bennett in the crime in which he was found in possession of military arsenal that he was being falsely accused of amassing with the intention to topple the Zanu PF regime led by President Mugabe.
Hitschmann was made to spend the night scribbling statements and making video recorded indications while his interrogators searched his premises and impounded computers and other evidence before he was eventually allowed access to legal representation, family and friends.
Sensing danger Roy Bennett fled into exile in South Africa where he remained only to return to the country in January 2010 following assurances from SADC that he would not be victimised for alleged crimes committed prior to the conclusion of the GPA and was free to take up appointment in the new government.
The fact that Hitschmann had been cleared of the terrorism charges by the courts was used by the MDC-T and SADC to instil confidence in Roy Bennett to return home.
Three days before he was due to be sworn into the new coalition government as Deputy Minister of Agriculture following his nomination to the post by the MDC-T in accordance with the GPA Bennett was arrested and thrown into police custody over the 2006 allegations.
Political tensions between Zanu PF and MDC-T heightened and President Mugabe decreed that he would never swear in the MDC-T official as the Deputy Agriculture Minister because of the allegations he was facing.
President Mugabe made it clear that notwithstanding that he had sworn in the arrested MDC-T Treasurer General as a Senator, he would never assume the Deputy ministerial position as the Zimbabwe courts would not exonerate him of the charges and he will be languishing in prison for the duration of the coalition government’s lifespan.
When the matter came to trial in late 2009 it did not take long for most Zimbabweans to conclude that Bennett was being persecuted for the political expediency of Zanu PF.
The case was assigned to the personal prosecution by self proclaimed Zanu PF aligned Attorney General Johannes Tomana before former Liberation War fighter turned High Court Justice Chinembiri Bhunu whose appointment was mired in controversy when the defence lawyers applied for his recusal from the case citing biased statements against Bennett that the Judge had made earlier on when Hitschmann’s case was brought before him for bail consideration.
As expected the Judge declined to recuse himself from the matter but startled the AG when he ruled that the prosecution could not rely on evidence that had hitherto been found to have been obtained unlawfully neither could state witnesses allude to evidence from Hitschmann’s trial where the accused was never cited as an accomplice and given an opportunity to defend himself.
But when the Investigation Officer was called upon to testify he left the court in limbo after disclosing that he was yet to conclude investigation into bank transactions that were entered into between Bennett and Hitschmann through the former’s Mozambique bank account.
In an attempt to sensationalise the matter the AG brought an array of weaponry exhibits to court the majority of which were later discovered to have nothing to do with the case as they were not part of the exhibits that the state had exhibited in the precedent trial of Peter Michael Hitschmann.
That was to be followed by Hitschmann testifying that Bennett had no part whatsoever in his arms dealing activities and disowning any statements he allegedly confessed to the CIO and Army interrogators under torture leaving the AG no option but to either abandon the case or impeach Hitschmann.
The AG chose the later option on the grounds that he believed the star state witness had turned hostile because he was an accomplice in the matter which the Judge had to panel beat and grant on the alternative ground the state had never relied on that of Hitschmann’s demeanour in court.
The impeachment process did not advance the state case any further when the AG failed to extract any confessions from Hitschmann’s cross examination and only managed to narrow the prosecution case to proving that alleged highly controversial and unreliable e-mail correspondence evidence between Bennett and Hitschmann pointed to the commission of the crime by Bennett.
The AG once again failed to exploit the window of opportunity to wrap up the case by calling IT armature Denshad Mutsetse to give expert evidence on the authenticity of the case and a CIO operative Clerk Typist Nyasha Matare to testify that the e-mails originated from Bennett when the duo were not only under qualified but more appropriately e-mail technology ignoramuses.
They damaged the State case beyond redemption and for most of us the Judge ought to have saved the AG the embarrassment of continuing with the case which was beyond salvaging.
But because of intense political pressure the Judge deferred pronouncing his decision over the defence application to discharge Bennett after the closure of the State Case from 10 March 2010 to 10 may hoping that political negotiations between Zanu PF, MDC-T and MDC-M over outstanding issues would have settled the matter politically thus rendering the court’s decision on the case to be purely of academic interest;but the Judge was forced to defer pronouncement of the verdict hoping the political events would save the President and the AG the embarrassment of having to live by the negative outcome to the intentions of their persecution of the MDC-T Treasurer General.
Unfortunately the unconstitutional Zanu PF and Presidential initiative to force Bennett to accept a posting to another Deputy Ministerial portfolio than the Agriculture one his Party wants him to occupy could not be settled in time as the MDC-T insists that it has the Constitutional prerogative to nominate and assign its Minister that neither President Mugabe nor his Zanu PF party can wish away.
And to minimise the embarrassment of the imminent defeat of the Bennett persecution case on President Mugabe and the AG as well as on Zanu PF the Herald that was ever supportive of the case prosecution despite its weaknesses started spreading rumours that MDC-T had agreed to Bennett’s posting to another Ministry and Bennett himself was amenable to that change.
The MDC-T National Spokesperson Nelson Chamisa has always maintained that postings to portfolios held by the party in the coalition was not subject to opinions of the individuals but rather instructed by the party’s determination of the competencies of its officials to make a difference in the portfolios to which they are assigned.
To that end he has maintained that the MDC-T still wants and demands that Bennett be unconditionally sworn in as Deputy Minister of Agriculture in accordance with his nomination by the party and the Constitution.
The realisation that the MDC-T had been unmoved by the unconstitutional refusal to swear in Bennett by president Mugabe and the collapse of the spurious grounds upon which he was holding out prompted the Police to attempt to find new premises upon which the President could still unconstitutionally refuse to attest Bennett into government.
The charges relating to a 92 tons maize hoarding charge allegedly committed by the accused in 2001 were dusted off the Police archives where they were gathering dust and slapped on Bennett on 10 March 2010 when it was anticipated the court would acquit him of the persecution charges.
The Police act that was quickly exposed for its malice embarrassed the AG further and he was forced to abandon the new charges to avert further embarrassment.
Obviously President Mugabe and his party will come out firing all sorts of bravado that they are custodians of the rule of law as evidenced by the outcome of the Bennett case.
But those bragging will always be hollow because the persecution of Bennett was never justified and will never be justified by a failed attempt to that will be remembered by many as the evidence of Zanu PF political and racial intolerance.
The only option left is for President Mugabe to abide by the constitution and unconditionally swear in Bennett as Deputy Agriculture Minister like he did with all other party nominees in this government.
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