State witness stuns court in Bennett’s trial
ZLHR Press Release – 25 Nov : The State witness in the trial of Deputy Agriculture Minister-Designate, Roy Bennett on Tuesday 24 November 2009 stunned the High Court after he claimed that Michael Hitschmann spent a whole night in 2006 writing a statement to the police.
Michael Joseph Nyakatawa, a member of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) who testified in the trial of Bennett on Wednesday told High Court Judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu that he together with Chief Superintendent Sipho James Makone interviewed Hitschmann in a room at Adams Barracks in Manicaland to establish his acquisition and possession of “arms of war”. He said the interview lasted for 45 minutes.
Nyakatawa said Hitschmann spend the night of 6 March 2006 when he was arrested writing a statement to the police under their guard at Adams Barracks.
Nyakatawa said they took turns with Makone to keep guard over Hitschmann as he wrote his statement from around 21:00 hours until 05:00 hours.
He also denied allegations raised by Defence lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa to the effect that Hitschmann was severely tortured on the night he was arrested.
Nyakatawa also told Justice Bhunu that no inventory of the weapons recovered at Hitschmann’s residence was done at the time of the recovery of the firearms.
The third State witness Detective Inspector Arnold Zorodzai Lungisani Dhliwayo also told the court that he was present during the video recording of Hitschmann’s confessions by an army officer Panganai Mugejo.
Trial continues Wednesday at 11:am.
November 25th, 2009 18:47
The cruelty that goes on is diabolical.
Have the perpetuators of these terrible crimes to humanity i.e. torture etc have no consciences?
Where is the rest of the world allowing such atrocities to continue unabated?
November 26th, 2009 12:46
“Where is the rest of the world allowing such atrocities to continue unabated?”
Half of the rest of the world is busy torturing its own subjects.
And if you consider countries such as Iceland or Denmark where there is little or no torture, how exactly can they “not allow” it in Zimbabwe, Iran, Libya, etc etc ? There is no world police force to arrest the perpetrators; where a UN army has been brought in, as in the Congo, it has been a disaster; so the only remaining weapon is selective sanctions and travel bans.
Unfortunately, the UN makes it possible for these people to travel freely to UN meetings, thus undoing the effect.