[Full Text] HARARE (Reuters) - A defense lawyer in the treason trial of Zimbabwe's opposition leader Thursday accused the key prosecution witness of setting up the case and taking $1 million from the government.
Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai and two senior party officials face a possible death penalty if convicted of plotting to kill President Robert Mugabe. The MDC officials all say they are innocent.
Tsvangirai's chief defense lawyer attacked key prosecution witness Ari Ben-Menashe, a Canadian-based political consultant who had said he video-taped Tsvangirai discussing Mugabe's assassination and seeking help to stage a coup.
Advocate George Bizos alleged he was an unreliable witness with a history of defrauding southern African governments and questioned Ben-Menashe about business deals. In particular, Bizos asked about a commodity brokerage which he alleged had taken millions of dollars from Zambia but failed to supply its government with promised grain.
Bizos said Ben-Menashe had taken $100,000 from the MDC but failed to deliver the promised political consultancy.
Ben-Menashe had also taken about $1 million from the Zimbabwe government, Bizos said, but he did not elaborate.
Ben-Menashe said his business problems were "not as simple as that" and objected to the fraud allegations.
"We intend proving that he is a fraudster," said Bizos.
A furious Ben-Menashe interrupted him, shaking his head and saying: "I really resent that word (fraudster). We are not on trial here, and I have not been convicted of any fraud."
Bizos said Ben-Menashe had deliberately lied to Tsvangirai that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. government were involved in his consultancy, and he was refusing to disclose the identity of a man he said posed as an American agent during his video-taped meeting with Tsvangirai.
Responding to suggestions by Bizos that he repeatedly used the word "eliminate" during the taped conversation in order to trap Tsvangirai, Ben-Menashe responded: "Usually we are honest people but if we see murderers we call them out."
Earlier, Ben-Menashe told the court Tsvangirai had agreed Mugabe should be "terminated" within 10 days of the meeting held in Montreal, Canada. A video recording of the meeting is crucial to the prosecution's case.
Ben-Menashe said his company alerted Canadian, Zimbabwean and U.S. authorities to the plot after meeting Tsvangirai twice and arranged a third meeting to gather videotaped evidence. He says he had no intention of killing anyone.
The defense team says the video was deliberately altered.
Tsvangirai lost to Mugabe in an election three months after the Montreal meeting. Britain and other Western countries accuse Mugabe of rigging the polls. [End]
Feb 22, 2002 - Tsvangirai video evidence 'doctored' *** THE surveillance video footage which purportedly shows Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe has been extensively "doctored", evidence made available to the Zimbabwe Independent this week shows.
Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) director Andrew Moyse said the video footage shown last week by Australia's Special Services Broadcasting (SBS) station was tampered with. Moyse said a common cut-and-paste editing method was used. "Notably, what Tsvangirai was heard to say did not match the titles on the screen," he said.***
Feb 2, 2003 - Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's opposition leader, goes on trial for his life tomorrow*** The defence will claim that the video had been doctored to misrepresent the conversation and that key exchanges are inaudible. The prosecution's chief witness is Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli intelligence agent who runs the Canadian firm, Dickens and Madson.
Last week he said that he had been subpoenaed to appear and would testify if called, ending speculation in Zimbabwe that he would not attend the trial. The timing of the hearing may be awkward for the government as it launches a diplomatic offensive to persuade the Commonwealth "troika" of South Africa, Nigeria and Australia to lift its suspension. The case also comes as Zimbabwe attempts to take advantage of a French invitation to visit Paris to have sanctions lifted on Mr Mugabe and his allies.
"I think Tsvangirai and his colleagues are going to use this trial to highlight Mugabe's violent campaign against the opposition, his record on human rights," said a Western diplomat in Harare. "I think Mugabe's politics will end up in the dock and the president's and the government's image is likely to suffer."
Last week, Mr Tsvangirai said: "We will defend ourselves strongly because we are innocent. We're victims of a government frame-up."***