Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

Convicted arms dealer Peter Hitschamann arrives at the Harare High Court in Zimbabwe yesterday, 12 January 2010, to give evidence in trial of Roy Bennett, who faces charges of possessing arms of war and plotting an insurgency against Robert "The Solution" Mugabe. Histchmann stumped the Attorney General and is now being threatened with a perjury charge for not saying what the Zimbabwe AG wanted to hear. An immaculately-dressed Roy Bennett arrives at court for his trial earlier on the same day. As you can see from Hitschmann's photo above, Central Intelligence Organisation operatives were in attendance, watching and silently intimidating. It appears as if this did not help them (or the Attorney-General) much. Harare, Zimbabwe, 13 January 2010 He was supposed to be the States star witness, despite his protests, but when Peter Hitschmann, the gun-runner, appeared in a Zimbabwe court today, he denied that Roy Bennett had anything to do any of the charges being leveled against ...

Roy Bennett arrives at court with his lead lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa. His trial has taken a twist now, with the balance of probabilities shifting towards the State as the Attorney-General's strategy becomes clearer. Bennett faces charges related to treason and amassing weapons of war. Harare, Zimbabwe, 26 November 2009 The latest news on Roy Bennett's trial at the High Court is rather farcical. The prosecution, led by none other than the Attorney General himself, Johannes Tomana, has now adopted the strategy of discrediting its own star witness, arms dealer Peter Hitschman. Hitschman signed a statement implicating Roy Bennett in the case of the amassing of weapons of war found at his farm. He was also allegedly recorded on video doing the same thing. Yesterday, another state witness, Superintendent Arnold Dhliwayo, told the Defence lawyers under cross-examination that Hitschman recounted several statements he made only when he realised that the charges he faced carried a life sen...

Roy Bennett and his wife, Heather, outside the High Court in Harare this morning. The judge in his case has now delivered his ruling on a crucial Defence application that would have had the effect of stopping the trial and referring the Attorney-General to the Law Society of Zimbabwe for dereliction of duty, as he sought to present improperly obtained evidence in the case. That application has been thrown out. The Defence gets the consolation of being allowed to lead evidence that the testimony of the star witness was obtained through torture, a move the AG opposed. Harare, Zimbabwe, 11 November 2009 Judge Justice Bhunu delivered a ruling this morning that effectively takes the Bennett case back to Square One. In his ruling, the judge rejected an application by lawyers for Bennett seeking to bar the evidence by Peter Hitschman, which they were arguing was procured by means of torture. They also insisted that the witness has now subsequently declared that he can not testify against Benn...

Roy Bennett arrives at court in Harare earlier today, flanked by one of his lawyers, Beatrice Mtetwa. His trial is now turning messy, with applications for dismal and counter-application from both the Defence and the Attorney General, who has taken personal charge of the prosecution of Bennett, who is Tsvangirai's Deputy Minister of Agriculture nominee. Mugabe refuses to swear him in until he is cleared of the charges he currently faces. Harare, Zimbabwe, 09 November 2009 The trial of Roy Bennett is now turning into a messy affair after the Defence lawyers applied to have the testimony of a key witness barred from being heard in court. Bennett's trial, which opened in Harare today was "provisionally" postponed by Justice Chinembiri Bhunu to Wednesday, when he expects that he would have made a ruling on the application by the State as well as the Attorney-General's own counter-applications. It appears that a statement from Peter Hitschman has been recorded by the A...