A court in Zimbabwe ruled Wednesday that a controversial prosecution witness will be allowed to testify at the trial of Roy Bennett, a senior official in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party and a ministerial nominee in the unity government.
Earlier in the week, Judge Chinembiri Bhunu of the High Court in Harare had postponed the trial to consider a defense argument that key prosecution witness Mike Hitschmann be removed from the case as he has admitted that his statement implicating Bennett of participating in a plot to overthrow President Robert Mugabe in 2006 was extracted under torture.
The postponement of the trial came after defense lawyers argued that Hitschmann has confessed that he was tortured into admitting that Bennett was involved in the alleged coup plot. The defense lawyers also told the court on Monday that Hitschmann has disowned his earlier statement and is not willing to testify for the state against Bennett.
When the trial resumed on Wednesday, the judge, however, ruled that Hitschmann "must be accorded the right to to put his defense across." The judge also permitted the defense lawyers to raise the torture allegations when they begin their arguments in earnest when the court resumes on Thursday.
Last month, a court in Harare ordered Bennett's rearrest after indicting him on terrorism charges, including possession of arms for the purposes of banditry, terrorism and inciting acts of insurgency. He was initially accused of involvement in an alleged plot to assassinate Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in 2006.
Bennett's rearrest came seven months after the country's Supreme Court released him on bail from a prison in Multare in March. His rearrest last month was as per Zimbabwean law, which demands that a person indicted for trial be taken into custody until he is granted bail. Bennett, who faces life in prison if convicted of the charges pressed against him, was later released on bail.
Bennett, a white farmer whose coffee farm was seized under President Robert Mugabe's land-reform program, was first arrested at a small airport in Harare on 13th February, just hours before he was to be sworn in as a deputy agricultural minister in the newly formed unity government. He has been in and out of prison since then.
The MDC party alleges that the case against Bennett is politically motivated and an attempt by hardliners in President Mugabe's Zanu-PF party to derail the coalition. The party had warned earlier that the repeated arrests and harassment of MDC supporters were threatening the longevity and proper functioning of the six-month old coalition government.
Following Bennett's re-arrest last month, Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai temporarily withdrew from the coalition government on 16th October over issues related to power-sharing and police crackdown on his party activists.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Tsvangirai and the ministers of his MDC party ended their three-week boycott of cabinet meetings, and attended a cabinet session for the first time since Bennett's re-arrest last month.
Tsvangirai's MDC party had called of its boycott of the country's power-sharing government earlier in the month, announcing that it would give President Mugabe 30 days to "implement the agreements on the pertinent issues we are concerned about." The announcement came after an emergency regional summit held in the Mozambican capital to resolve the Zimbabwean political crisis.
In line with the power-sharing deal, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as the country's new Prime Minister, while Mugabe remained the president. The move, aimed at ending the political crisis in Zimbabwe and to pull back the impoverished African country from economic collapse, also effectively ended almost three decades of absolute rule by President Mugabe.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.