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Mugabe opponent on treason charge
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Zimbabwe's main opposition leader has been charged with high treason over an alleged plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe. Morgan Tsvangirai, who faces a death sentence if convicted, denied the allegation and said the charge was part of a government attempt to smear him. Tsvangirai was charged after a video surfaced in which he is alleged to have been plotting to kill Mugabe. Tsvangirai told CNN: "These are contrived charges and the whole thing smacks of a political conspiracy to undermine my image ahead of the presidential elections." Tsvangirai entered police headquarters in the capital Harare at 2.45 p.m. (1245 GMT) on Monday with a bodyguard and a lawyer. Police ordered two other bodyguards from Tsvangirai's party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), to wait outside, Reuters reported. Tsvangirai told CNN the charge did not prevent him from standing in the election and that he would not be dropping out of the presidential race.
He said Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF party were trying to convince people of his guilt ahead of the election and any future trial. Tsvangirai is reckoned by analysts to have mounted the sternest challenge yet to the 78-year-old leader's grip on power since independence in 1980. Police opened an investigation this month over video footage that was alleged to show Tsvangirai engaged in a discussion about a possible "elimination" of Mugabe. Tsvanirai, who admits he is in the video, says it has been doctored "to achieve certain objectives". Although he categorically denies being involved in a plot to kill Mugabe he has so far refused to deny or confirm whether he used the word "eliminate" in the video, which was secretly recorded. Tsvangirai, who talked to CNN's Jeff Koinange about the videotape, said it was made of a meeting with a lobbying group, Dickens and Madison, which had been working for the MDC. He said was asked "in the event the president does die" what would happen. Tsvangirai says he now believes the lobbyists were also working for ZANU-PF and that during the meeting they had tried to get him to use the word "eliminate." He added: "This will not have any effect on my campaign. People don't consider this important. "The most preoccupying issues for Zimbabweans are the salvation of the people, the lack of jobs and the economy." Tension in the southern Africa country is still rising, with the opposition accusing Mugabe's supporters of violent intimidation and the United States and European Union slapping personal sanctions on the president and his inner circle. The U.N secretary-general, Kofi Annan, said: "The situation in Zimbabwe is worrying. "I believe that the people of Zimbabwe should be given a chance for a free and fair election and once they have voted, the voice of the people must be respected." Britain has been leading international efforts to guarantee freea nd fair elections in Zimbabwe and successfully lobbied the EU to impose sanctions against Mugabe and his associates. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Monday: "Coming just days before the presidential elections, it looks like yet another attempt by the Mugabe regime to obstruct the conduct of the election and the ability of the people of Zimbabwe to choose, freely and fairly, who should lead them." |
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