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Zimbabwe nominee will face trial | Zimbabwe nominee will face trial |
(about 2 hours later) | |
A magistrate in Zimbabwe has ruled that there is enough evidence for politician Roy Bennett to face charges including that of terrorism. | A magistrate in Zimbabwe has ruled that there is enough evidence for politician Roy Bennett to face charges including that of terrorism. |
The charges against the MDC party's nominee for deputy agriculture minister relate to illegal arms possession. He was cleared of immigration offences. | The charges against the MDC party's nominee for deputy agriculture minister relate to illegal arms possession. He was cleared of immigration offences. |
Mr Bennett, who denies the charges, looked tired and shook his head when he heard the ruling. | |
Last week his party joined President Mugabe's Zanu-PF in a unity government. | |
In one of its first moves, the new government announced that soldiers and civil servants would now be paid in US dollars, to help revive Zimbabwe's shattered economy. | |
Tension | Tension |
Mr Bennett's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says his arrest - on the day the cabinet was sworn in - is a politically motivated attempt to undermine the power-sharing agreement. | |
The party wants Mr Bennett, 52, released from custody, along with more than 30 other MDC supporters and activists who have been detained in recent months. | |
I do not think it indicates any goodwill Gordon DuguidUS state department Profile: Roy Bennett | |
Magistrate Livingstone Chipadze said Mr Bennett should remain in custody until 4 March. | |
His lawyers intend to go to the High Court to request bail. | His lawyers intend to go to the High Court to request bail. |
There was a deafening silence in court after the ruling, journalist David Farira told the BBC. | |
He says tension is building up in the city of Mutare, 270km (170 miles) east of the capital, Harare, where Mr Bennett has been held since Friday. | He says tension is building up in the city of Mutare, 270km (170 miles) east of the capital, Harare, where Mr Bennett has been held since Friday. |
Armed police are patrolling the streets as hundreds of opposition supporters have been keeping vigil outside the court in support of the former white farmer. | |
Washington on Tuesday criticised the case against Mr Bennett, suggesting it did not bode well for the success of the coalition government. | Washington on Tuesday criticised the case against Mr Bennett, suggesting it did not bode well for the success of the coalition government. |
"I do not think it indicates any goodwill," US State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid told journalists. | "I do not think it indicates any goodwill," US State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid told journalists. |
Dollar allowance | |
Mr Bennett, who lost his property under Mr Mugabe's land reform programme, spent eight months in prison in 2004-05 for pushing a minister during an argument in Parliament over transfers of land. | |
He recently returned to Zimbabwe after more than two years in South Africa, where he had fled after being accused in connection with an alleged plot to kill Mr Mugabe. | |
Also on Wednesday, Zimbabwe's new Finance Minister, Tendai Biti, announced that some 130,000 government employees would receive $100 (£70) a month tax-free, paid in US currency. | |
Mr Biti said the measures were designed to "get Zimbabwe working again", after teachers, nurses and doctors stopped working last year, demanding that they be paid in hard currency. | |
The country has the world's highest official inflation rate - estimated by economists at several billion per cent - which has left Zimbabwe's local currency almost worthless. |