Roy Bennett who is a senior member of MDC and close associate of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was arrested before his trial scheduled on 19th October. This is the second time this important ministerial nominee of Unity government of Zimbabwe has been imprisoned on the charges of terrorism. Unfortunately first time was in February when coalition government was being sworn in and Roy Bennett was due to become deputy agricultural minister.

In Zimbabwe such arrests are not surprising because Mugabe’s Zanu PF party still holds much power and they use (and abuse) that power to trample the major opposition party MDC which almost won the elections in Zimbabwe and threatened to topple Mugabe’s regime.

Roy Bennett being white farmer has been an old easy target of Mugabe. His land has been seized under land reform programme, he has been jailed for pushing a minister in parliament in 2004 and has also been accused of plotting to kill Mugabe in 2006. His present charges are terrorism, insurgency, sabotage and banditry. Needless to say this is alleged to be politically motivated abuse directed at MDC and its members and is Mugabe’s yet another attempt to systematically eliminate opposition.

Via BBC