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The state alleges that Hitschmann was paid by Bennett to purchase weapons to assassinate President Robert Mugabe

Ruling to impeach state witness in Zimbabwe’s Bennett trial postponed



The application by the prosecution team to impeach a key state witness in the treason trial of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) treasurer general, Roy Bennett, has been postponed to Monday after an assessor failed to attend court.

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High Court judge Chinembiri Bhunu was expected to make a ruling Thursday whether key witness Michael Peter Hitschmann could be impeached by the state counsel led by Attorney General, Johannes Tomana. The state is accusing Hitschmann of departing from his earlier statements. Bennett's defense lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa told journalists outside the court that the ruling would be made on Monday because one of the assessors failed to attend. Hitschmann also told the media that the ruling had to be postponed "as he was advised that one of the assessors was involved in a car accident." If impeached, the arms dealer would be cross examined by the prosecution. The state alleges that Hitschmann was paid by Bennett to purchase weapons to assassinate President Robert Mugabe. Hitschmann is said to have implicated Bennett when arrested in 2006 after being found in possession of firearms. Htschmann has since backtracked on his statements saying he did so under "duress" from state security agents. Bennett, who is MDC designate deputy agriculture minister choice is still to be sworn in office in the inclusive government after President Mugabe reiterated he could only do so "when his (Bennett) case end at the courts. The case of Bennett is one of the contentious outstanding issues in the Global Political Agreement signed by the country's three political parties, Zanu PF, MDC-T and MDC-M.


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Stephen Chadenga -- Bio and Archives

Stephen Chandega is a journalist in Zimbabwe


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