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Misanet.com / IPS, 21 November - In a landmark ruling, Zimbabwe's Supreme Court has thrown out a case against the leader of the country's main opposition party, who was charged with sabotage and terrorism. The full bench of the Supreme Court, five of them, this week dismissed the state's case that the law under which it had sought to charge Morgan Tsvangirai is unconstitutional. The government took Tsvangirai to court after the opposition leader told thousands of supporters last year at a rally in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, that President Robert Mugabe risked being removed violently if he resisted a peaceful exit from office. Had he been convicted, Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), would have faced up to a maximum of life imprisonment. To wild cheers of supporters, Tsvangirai told the rally last year: "What we want to tell Mugabe today is that go peacefully. If you don't want to go we will remove you violently." Immediately senior ruling ZANU-PF party officials demanded for his arrest, saying his statement amounted to treason. Hundreds of ex-combatants, who fought in the country's liberation war that led to independence in 1980, demonstrated in the streets of Harare, demanding Tsvangirai's immediate arrest. Treason carries a death sentence in Zimbabwe. The state argued that the opposition leader had violated the country's draconian Law and Order Maintenance Act. But the Supreme Court bench, which included the new Chief Justice, Godfrey Chidyausiku, Tuesday found sections 51 and 58 of the constitution to be unconstitutional as they contravene the rights to freedom of expression and to protection of the law. The Law and Order Maintenance Act is a colonial piece of legislation passed in the 1960s to suppress black nationalism in Rhodesia, now called Zimbabwe. The Supreme Court ruled that the Act had not been introduced to promote democracy but to suppress it. It was the same law that the colonial government of Ian Smith used to imprison nationalist leaders.
Tsvangirai, who was delighted that the case was over, accused the government of resorting to using the archaic laws to harass opponents of the ruling party. "It vindicates our position that the case had to do with political harassment of MDC supporters," said Tsvangirai. An elated Tsvangirai said the judgement vindicates what his party has always said that the government should scrap the Act as it was obsolete. Tsvangirai, who is expected to give Mugabe the stiffest challenge of his career in next year's presidential elections, said he did not regret making the statement that he described as a friendly advice to his opponent, whom he urged to read the political mood in the country. Tsvangirai had equated Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980, with former Yugoslav dictator Slobodan Milosevic, who was ousted in a popular uprising last year. Jonathan Moyo, Zimbabwe's state minister for information and publicity, said the government would "respect" the court's ruling.
Source: Based on press reports, MDC and afrol archives
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