Roy Bennett remanded to October for trial

By Violet Gonda
1 July 2009

A Mutare magistrate remanded Roy Bennett, the MDC Deputy Agriculture Minister nominee to 13 October, for the commencement of his trial. Bennett, who is also the MDC Treasurer General, was arrested in February and spent a month in a Mutare remand prison. This was following allegations he conspired with jailed Peter Hitschmann in 2006 to possess dangerous weapons with the intention of using them for purposes of banditry, insurgency, sabotage and terrorism. Bennett denies the charge. Ironically Hitschmann gave his own evidence about this in court, and was acquitted on the firearms charge.

On Wednesday Bennett’s lawyer, Trust Maanda told SW Radio Africa he was not happy with the date given for the commencement of trial. He accused the State of using delaying tactics by coming up with a date that was too far, ‘to keep his client on remand forever.’

The defence team had warned the State it was going to apply for refusal for further remand if the prosecutor did not come up with a trial date prior to Wednesday’s remand hearing. Maanda said his client should go to trial at a reasonable time to remove this spectrum of prosecution over his head.

The lawyer said: “The State was not ready for trial and they did not want him to be removed from remand and so they had to come up with a trial date – which they know that, if they were to put it so far away they will try to put their house in order. But we are not happy with this long period between now and the trial date.”
Meanwhile, the Magistrate agreed to relax Bennett’s stringent bail conditions because of the lengthy period before the commencement of trial. Maanda said instead of reporting to the police once a week, his client will now only report twice a month.

Bennett is the MDC’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture designate but is yet to be sworn in. The MDC has said Mugabe is refusing to swear him in saying he faces serious charges.

The party said in a statement: “The MDC is concerned by the continued harassment and arrests of its MPs and officials by the State on trumped-up charges. The fact that his case has been remanded further by almost four months means this is just political persecution and the State has no evidence whatsoever linking the Deputy Minister designate to any crime.”

The MDC called for the immediate swearing-in of Bennett as the Deputy Agriculture Minister saying he is innocent until proven guilty.