Civil servants strike forces postponement of Bennett trial

By Tichaona Sibanda
8 February 2010

High Court workers on Monday joined the civil servants strike that started last week on Friday forcing the postponement of Roy Bennett’s trial in Harare.

Attorney-General Johannes Tomana, the state’s lead prosecutor told journalists the trial had been deferred indefinitely on account of the industrial action by government workers.

The civil servants, on an average $160 per month are demanding a pay rise. Negotiations between government and union leaders ended in deadlock on Friday after a week of talks.

The MDC Treasurer-General is on trial charged with illegal possession of arms for ‘terrorism, banditry and sabotage.’ Since the trial began late last year, proceedings have yet to sit the full five days of the week much to the annoyance of Bennett who denies all charges against him, saying they are politically motivated. The charges carry a maximum death sentence.

The popular former commercial farmer and Chimanimani MP known as ‘Pachedu’ in MDC circles is accused by the state of funding a 2006 plot to blow up a major communication link and assassinate government figures. His arrest and trial is another source of tension between Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, who nominated him as Deputy Agriculture Minister last year. Mugabe has refused to appoint Bennett, saying the courts should clear him first.

However the state’s key witness, Peter Hitschmann, an arms trader who faced the same charges but was convicted in 2006 on a lesser charge of possessing dangerous weapons, has denied Bennett was involved in the ‘plot.’

On Friday, Judge Chinembiri Bhunu ruled that disputed emails linking Bennett to a conspiracy to procure arms and to blow up some communications targets could be used as evidence, despite objections by defence lawyers that the documents were fake. The court had previously thrown out confessions by Hitschmann implicating Bennett on the grounds that the statements had been extracted under torture.