The evidence Ben Menashe gave to the court when he appeared in person last year was that the assassination of Mugabe was discussed during EACH of three meetings at which both he and Tsvangirai were present, on their own and with others. The meetings took place in London on 22 October and 3 November 2001, and in Montreal on 4 December of that year.
When Tsvangirai was indicted, the State said there were audio tapes of the first two London meetings, and a video tape of the third Montreal meeting - all of which would show that an assassination plot was discussed in ALL the meetings. The audio tapes of the London meetings were never produced in court - the prosecutors said they were inaudible.
With difficulty, defence lawyers eventually forced the Attorney General to produce the transcripts of the audio tapes, which were full of gaps, and which showed no evidence of any assassination plot being discussed. Indeed the transcripts were entirely consistent with what Tsvangirai and his colleagues had said all along, namely that the meetings were to discuss a political consultancy agreement, not an assassination plot. ***