Harare, 24 July-(ANA)-Members of the judiciary loyal to President Robert Mugabe are trying to erode his political rival’s parliamentary majority through the courts by jailing Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) MPs, the party has alleged.
The opposition party, which has been in a transitional government with Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party since last February, has accused biased judges and prosecutors of “going after” MDC MPs on trumped-up charges and then seeking and handing down stiff jail sentences on conviction.
The MDC made the allegation after the fourth party deputy in a month was sentenced to a jail term of more than a year.
A sentence of six months or more automatically disqualifies an MP from holding a parliamentary seat.
Member of parliament Ernest Mudavanhu was jailed on Tuesday for 18 months having been convicted of selling for profit 20 tonnes of fertiliser last year given to him as part of a state programme to boost agricultural production.
In total five MDC MPs have been jailed since the transitional government came into existence six months ago and a further 11 are facing charges ranging from fraud to abusing government farming input programmes.
Despite the murder last year of about 200 MDC supporters and the torture of thousands more during Mr Mugabe’s campaign to get re-elected as president, no senior official from Zanu-PF has been prosecuted over human rights abuses.
“It is total victimisation,” said MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa. “Zanu-PF is determined to erode the MDC’s majority in parliament by using the coercive apparatus of the state. It is a case of the guilty ones prosecuting the innocent.”(ANA)
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