Judge allows email evidence against Bennett

By Violet Gonda
3 February 2010

High Court judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu ruled on Wednesday that the disputed emails linking the MDC Treasurer General Roy Bennett to an alleged plot to destabilise the former ZANU PF government were admissible.

The emails are allegedly between Bennett and the State’s key witness Peter Hitschmann. The emails allegedly show communication between the two, and how they conspired to ‘blow up communication lines’. They have both disowned the emails.

Defence lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa argued the emails were ‘fake,’ and moved to show the court how easy it is to create emails as though they were coming from a particular email address.

Hitschmann, various MDC officials, including Giles Mutsekwa, who is now the MDC co-Home Affairs Minister, and some police officers were arrested in 2006 in connection with this case but were acquitted. However Bennett is still facing the same charges of attempting to commit acts of banditry and terrorism.

Last week the judge said Hitschmann’s confessions implicating Bennett were invalid, after the state’s star witness said he had been tortured into linking Bennett to the crime. But in his ruling on Wednesday the judge said the emails were allegedly sent before Hitschmann’s torture and therefore could not be tainted by the alleged abuse suffered by the firearms dealer. Justice Bhunu therefore ruled that the disputed emails are admitted as evidence.

The defence lawyer then produced some ‘fake emails’ during the cross examination of State witness Precious Matare, to show the court how easy it is for anyone to hack into an email address and send emails from that address.

One of the false emails used by the defence to prove this point implicated the Attorney General Johannes Tomana, who is also the prosecutor in the Bennett case. When Matare began reading the fake email, the Attorney General quickly jumped up to oppose and to block the defence’s line of argument. Tomana argued that it was inappropriate to ‘caricature’ the person of the Attorney General in these proceedings.

Observers in court said it was pretty clear that Tomana saw that this kind of evidence would be damaging to his case and likely make a fatal flaw in his argument. Mtetwa maintained she was attempting to demonstrate that the alleged emails between her client and Hitschmann could have been produced by anyone.

The High Court judge adjourned the hearing to Monday where he is expected to make a ruling on whether the defence can continue to show the fake emails.