Zimbabwe's opposition MDC-T Secretary General Tendai Laxton Biti, who was last week arrested on return from South Africa at the Harare International Airport for alleged treason and utterance of statements prejudicial to the State, has been charged with two more offences.
According to local media The Herald on Tuesday, one of the five lawyers representing Biti, Advocate Lewis Uriri, last night confirmed that Biti, who is still in custody, was now being also charged with causing disaffection among the defence forces and insulting President Robert Mugabe.
Police chief spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said on Monday night that he would only comment after communicating with the investigating officers. "I am yet to get enough information from the investigating officers," he said.
However, Uriri said the new charges emanated from the same document he allegedly authored on March 25 this year, dubbed "The Transition Strategy." "They are now alleging that in the document Biti threatened to fire all serving members of the army and to impose a rigorous screening exercise when they reapplied, which was believed to be causing disaffection among the soldiers."
"It is also now being alleged that Biti in the said document, referred to the President as an "evil man," Uriri said.
Uriri confirmed that Biti was still in police custody and that the police had indicated to come up with more charges.
Biti was arrested at the airport soon after his return from South Africa where he had been based for the past two months.
Police alleged that the treason charges arose from claims by Biti that MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai had won 50.3 percent of the vote in the March 29 presidential election. It is also alleged that Biti claimed on March 30 that the MDC-T had won both the presidential and parliamentary elections.
Source:Xinhua
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