(Last Updated on February 10, 2016 by Editor)
ZIMBABWE – A Zimbabwe court on Tuesday jailed the leader of a fringe opposition party for nine years for possessing home-made petrol bombs in a supposed plot to attack a dairy run by President Robert Mugabe’s wife.
Owen Kuchata, 34, leader of Zimbabwe People’s Front, pleaded guilty to possessing weapons that could be used for “insurgence, sabotage, banditry or terrorism.”
He was arrested last month along with three others – a fellow party activist, an army corporal and a retired intelligence officer – near the dairy farm outside Harare.
“It seems you have a wrong way of sending messages to people,” magistrate Hosiah Mujaya told Kuchata, who was found with four “Molotov cocktail” bombs.
The prosecution said police received warning of the planned attack and intercepted the suspects as they headed to the property.
Last week the country’s prosecutor-general Johannes Tomana was arrested and charged with “obstructing the course of justice” after dropping charges against two of the four men.
The two freed men have since been re-arrested.
Grace Mugabe, 50, is seen as a possible successor to her husband, who turns 92 this month.