Opposition Official Arrested in Zimbabwe
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
Friday, June 13, 2008
HARARE, Zimbabwe, June 12 -- The Zimbabwean government's crackdown on political opponents took an ominous turn Thursday with the arrest of the opposition party's No. 2 official, who was charged with treason and could face the death penalty.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was also arrested Thursday, in a pattern of harassment two weeks before he is to face President Robert Mugabe in a presidential runoff election. Tsvangirai has been arrested four times in recent days, but has not been charged in any of the incidents.
Tsvangirai was detained Thursday in the town of Kwekwe, where he had gone to campaign, and hours later in the city of Gweru.
Mugabe is facing the strongest electoral challenge to his 28-year rule as once-prosperous Zimbabwe slides deeper into economic decline. Since the first round of voting March 29, ruling party activists have rampaged across the countryside in what human rights activists call the worst political violence and intimidation in two decades.
The opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, says 66 of its members have been killed by suspected ruling party militias since the vote, as the government steps up arrests of MDC members and supporters.
The opposition party's secretary general, Tendai Biti, was arrested at the Harare airport on his arrival from South Africa, where he had spent the past two months because of safety concerns.
Biti was charged with treason and issuing "public false statements prejudicial to the state," the government said. The treason charge carries the possibility of the death penalty.
"He was arrested by 10 men at the airport before his passport could be stamped," opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa said. "At the moment, we don't know where he has been taken to. We are worried."
Biti's legal representatives appealed to a court to force police to disclose his whereabouts, the opposition said.
Zimbabwe's chief police spokesman, Wayne Bvudzijena, confirmed Biti's arrest.
"The treason charges arise from a document he authored, 'The Transition Strategy,' while the other charge is about his inflammatory statements he made after the March 29 harmonized elections," Bvudzijena said.
Authorities allege that in the document, Biti calls on Britain and the United States to topple Mugabe's government. The opposition denies Biti wrote any such document.
