HARARE - A court in Zimbabwe yesterday granted jailed MDC politician Roy Bennett, pictured, bail of 2000 Zimbabwean dollars - but the 52-year-old white farmer will remain in custody for up to seven more days following a challenge to the ruling by the state.
HARARE - A court in Zimbabwe yesterday granted jailed MDC politician Roy Bennett, pictured, bail of 2000 Zimbabwean dollars - but the 52-year-old white farmer will remain in custody for up to seven more days following a challenge to the ruling by the state.
Bennett was not in the high court in Harare for the hearing. He is being detained in a prison in the eastern city of Mutare, where he was denied bail by a magistrate's court earlier this month.
Granting the MDC's appeal of the lower court ruling, Judge Tedious Karwi said: "In my view I'm satisfied that, in the interest of justice, he must be granted bail." But state prosecutors invoked a clause in the constitution that allows them seven days to appeal the ruling.
Bennett was arrested on February 13 at an airport outside Harare and charged with possessing weapons for the purposes of insurgency in an alleged plot dating to 2006.
He was due to be sworn in as deputy agriculture minister in the country's new government. - Sapa-DPA
Bennett still in jail despite bail
HARARE - A court in Zimbabwe yesterday granted jailed MDC politician Roy Bennett, pictured, bail of 2000 Zimbabwean dollars - but the 52-year-old white farmer will remain in custody for up to seven more days following a challenge to the ruling by the state.
HARARE - A court in Zimbabwe yesterday granted jailed MDC politician Roy Bennett, pictured, bail of 2000 Zimbabwean dollars - but the 52-year-old white farmer will remain in custody for up to seven more days following a challenge to the ruling by the state.
Bennett was not in the high court in Harare for the hearing. He is being detained in a prison in the eastern city of Mutare, where he was denied bail by a magistrate's court earlier this month.
Granting the MDC's appeal of the lower court ruling, Judge Tedious Karwi said: "In my view I'm satisfied that, in the interest of justice, he must be granted bail." But state prosecutors invoked a clause in the constitution that allows them seven days to appeal the ruling.
Bennett was arrested on February 13 at an airport outside Harare and charged with possessing weapons for the purposes of insurgency in an alleged plot dating to 2006.
He was due to be sworn in as deputy agriculture minister in the country's new government. - Sapa-DPA
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