Posted on 01/21/2004 6:23:34 AM PST by Clive
HARARE Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai told the Harare High Court yesterday that any attempt on President Robert Mugabe's life would be "disastrous", as he refuted charges that he plotted to assassinate the Zimbabwean leader and seize power.
"All political assassination has consequences that undermine the very values of democracy, justice and freedom," he told Judge Paddington Garwe.
Tsvangirai began giving evidence on Monday in his 11-month treason trial, denying the state's charge that he hired a political consultant in Canada to help him kill Mugabe and win the support of the military to stage a coup.
"Any attempt on his life would be disastrous," Tsvangirai said yesterday. "Anarchy and chaos may arise, leading to civil war."
Tsvangirai, who is out on bail, could face the death penalty if convicted. He was charged two weeks before he ran against Mugabe in the 2002 presidential elections. Mugabe narrowly won re- election in the vote, which independent observers said was swayed by intimidation and vote rigging.
The charges hinge on a grainy and barely audible four-and-a-half-hour video, secretly recorded at consultant Ari Ben Menashe's Montreal offices, in which Tsvangirai allegedly spoke of Mugabe's "elimination".
Defence attorneys argue that Tsvangirai was framed by Ben Menashe, who was working for the Zimbabwean government when the meeting took place on December 4 2001.
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) insists it only asked Ben Menashe to help lobby for international support. Tsvangirai said he first met with Ben Menashe at a London hotel on October 22 2001.
He said Ben Menashe told him he was familiar with Zimbabwe after US President Bill Clinton's administration asked him to negotiate a face-saving exit for Mugabe that later fell through.
Ben Menashe, who claims to be a former Israeli intelligence agent, was acquitted by a US federal jury in 1990 of illegally arranging a $36m deal to sell USmade military planes to Iran in exchange for the release of four American hostages.
Israel denies he did intelligence work for the country and says he was a junior clerk in its civil service. Sapa-AFP
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