Hitschmann cleared of assassination plot against Mugabe

By Tichaona Sibanda
4 July 2007

Peter Michael Hitschmann, who has been held in police custody by the regime for over a year on charges of attempting to assassinate Robert Mugabe, has been cleared of the plot by a High Court judge.

But Judge Elfas Chitakunye on Tuesday convicted Hitschmann on a lesser charge of possessing dangerous weapons of war and slapped him with a three-year jail term. His lawyers said they would appeal at the Supreme Court.

Hitschmann has always denied plans to assassinate Mugabe, insisting that weapons found at his home were for personal use. The former soldier in the Rhodesian army is a registered arms dealer and a professional hunter.

He was arrested in February last year after he was allegedly found in possession of weapons of war that the state said he intended to use to carry out acts of banditry.

The state case against Hitschmann was that he had plotted to assassinate Mugabe during his birthday celebrations in the eastern border city of Mutare. In the aftermath of his arrest, state security agents arrested several leading MDC officials including Mutare North MP Giles Mutsekwa, in connection with the plot.

Mutsekwa told Newsreel police investigations have been politicised to a point where the slightest instruction by a Zanu (PF) politician now warrants an arrest before a proper investigation.

‘We knew from the onset that certain Zanu (PF) ministers were behind our arrests because they thought it would deviate attention from their atrocities against the opposition,’ Mutsekwa said.

The MDC MP believes it is time discredited state witnesses like Israel Phiri were prosecuted for lying in court. In his evidence Phiri, a Major in the Zimbabwe National Army, said he was recruited by Hitschmann into the shadowy Zimbabwe Freedom Movement to carry out acts of banditry in Zimbabwe.
Phiri also said he had been issued with weapons and ammunition by Hitschmann to pass on to a team of hired gunmen to carry out Mugabe’s assassination. He also said Hitschmann had hatched a plot to pour used engine oil on the road at the Christmas Pass to cause Mugabe’s motorcade to skid. Phiri told the court that the assassination plot was never carried out as it had too many loopholes.

ZimOnline reports that Judge Chitakunye dismissed his evidence saying it lacked corroboration. The judge also said Phiri was evasive and arrogant in the witness stand, making it difficult to believe he was an undercover military intelligence officer.

‘This matter involved the security of the nation,” said Justice Chitakunye. ‘It remains a mystery to me why proper recordings of meetings between Major Phiri and the accused were not done.’

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