It's still the same, nasty old Zimbabwe

The legal battle is hotting up to free Roy Bennett, Zimbabwe's deputy agriculture minister-designate who was arrested on February 13 on charges of 'treason' before he could be sworn in with Zimbabwe's new so-called unity-cabinet with Robert Mugabe.

A magistrate in the town of Mutare who ordered Bennett released on bail now has also been arrested on Friday for issuing his 'illegal orders'.. see and also see The elderly Bennett has now been held in a police jail in Mutare since his shock arrest at a Harare airport on February 13 - at exactly the same time when the troubled African country's new 'unity-cabinet' was being sworn in. Bennett was ordered back to the police cell on Friday by Supreme Court magistrate Garwe in Harare, who had been asked to hurriedly revoke his bail within just hours after it had been granted by the now arrested magistrate in the town of Mutare. On Friday -- despite the now arrested magistrate Livingstone Chipadze ordering his release on bail -- the English-speaking politician has again been ordered to remain in jail until March 18. see Magistrate Chipadze's arrest also prompted an immediate strike by other magistrates in Mutare in solidarity. "It is frightening when a magistrate is arrested only because he has passed a judgment that is not popular with the State," Bennett's lawyer said on Friday. And only a few hours after this court-drama, Zimbabwe's prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai 's car was involved in a head-on crash with a heavy truck which came barrelling towards his car, with his driver and his wife Susan inside. Susan died shortly after arrival in hospital. The driver and Mr Tsvangirai were injured slightly. The legal battle for Bennett's release seemed won on Tuesday when High Court judge Tedius Karwi ordered his immediate release after throwing out a State appeal denying his release. Two senior prison officers, the Officer Commanding Prisons in Manicaland, Senior Assistant Commissioner Albert Mandinika and Chief Superintendent Zondai Nyatsanza, the chief staff officer in Manicaland, then confiscated his warrant of liberation papers and disappeared with them, the MDC said in a press release which also demanded his immediate release. "Hon Bennett remains unlawfully in custody despite a High Court order to have him released and despite his lawyers having paid the US$2,000 bail to the clerk of court, said their news release. see The Zimbabwean ex-farmer, who is a long-time friend and political ally of the country's embattled new prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai in the so-called new 'unity cabinet' with Robert Mugabe, was arrested on February 13, 2009. The Mugabe-backed state-machinery officials claim that they are holding him on suspicion of 'illegally possessing arms for purposes of committing banditry, terrorism and insurgency." There are widespread fears among his party members that Bennett and anyone who supports him will be tortured -- and members of his MDC-party have been holding a determined vigil around the police station ever since his arrest to stop Bennett from being spirited away to the nearby priso where many political activists have been tortured and killed by Mugabe's cronies over the years. The latest 'legal" move to keep Bennett behind bars was instigated by his long-time political rival, the pro-Mugabe minister of justice Patrick Chinamasa, reports ZW News online. An MDC spokesman said that Chinamasa had personally stopped prison authorities from freeing Bennett right after Chipadze had granted him bail for a second time within a week. Chinamasa, Mr Bennett's supporters and lawyer claimed, rushed his subordinates to the police jail to physically block Bennett’s release and meanwhile obtained a Supreme Court order from pro-Mugabe judge Garwe -- who set aside Bennett’s US $2,000 bail order. Zimbabwe's newly-elected Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has also repeatedly condemned the arrest of Bennett and many other political prisoners from his party who are still in prison. Tsvangirai himself has been repeatedly arrested over the years and tortured. His supporters and foreign observers say Bennett is being used as a political pawn by Mugabe so that Tshvangirai will resign the ill-fated 'unity-cabinet'. Mugabe thus completely ignores the advice from the United Nation's secretary-general to release all the political prisoners so that the international community can gain confidence and support the unity government. As a result, the economic sanctions in place against the Zimbabwean government has been extended for yet another year this week. This week, after reportedly 'intense pressure' from the White House in Washington DC, activist Jestina Mukoko of the Zimbabwe Peace Project was released on US$ 600 bail. She's now under treatment in hospital, with doctors saying she had been 'extensively tortured' during her three-months of incarceration. In December, reports were circulated that she had died in prison. see