Bennett’s Lawyers Want Judge to Quit

Lawyers defending Zimbabwean politician Roy Bennett in his terrorism trial want the presiding judge to recuse himself over a ruling he made on Wednesday regarding one of the main prosecution witnesses.

Defense lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said Judge Chinembiri Bhunu should step down for ruling on Wednesday that prosecution witness Peter Hitschmann should testify, even though Hitschmann had publicly claimed he had been coerced into incriminating Bennett.

Bennett, the Treasurer-General of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has been accused of terrorism and illegal possession of weapons.

Tsvangirai recently boycotted Zimbabwe’s unity government citing Bennett’s arrest as an act of intimidation by President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party and accusing the president of disregarding a power sharing agreement they signed following disputed elections in 2008.[ER]