Zimbabwe MDC Official Takes Bail Bid To High Court

`Roy Bennett`s bail application will be heard in the Harare High Court on Tuesday 24th of February 2009`, the MDC said in a statement.

Zimbabwe's high court will rule on Tuesday on a bail application by a senior Movement for Democratic Change official facing terrorism charges, the party said on Saturday.

Roy Bennett, the MDC's treasurer-general, was arrested on Feb. 13, just before a unity cabinet appointed by rivals President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn into office.

"Roy Bennett's bail application will be heard in the Harare High Court on Tuesday 24th of February 2009," the MDC said in a statement.

On Wednesday, a magistrate ruled that Bennett had a case to answer and remanded him in custody, prompting his lawyers to seek a bail application at the high court. If convicted, Bennett faces life imprisonment.

"We maintain that the cases against Roy Bennett have no basis in law and are trumped up, vindictive, malicious and politically motivated," the MDC said. "Roy Bennett and all political prisoners must be released immediately, unconditionally and unharmed."

Tsvangirai said last week that Bennett's arrest and the detention of MDC supporters and human rights activists risked undermining the unity government and efforts to stabilise the economy. The MDC has stopped short of saying it could pull out.

Bennett recently returned from exile in South Africa after fleeing Zimbabwe three years ago when police linked him to the discovery of an arms cache in the eastern region of the country.

A former white farmer who lost his farm under the government's land redistribution programme, Bennett is a founding MDC member and one of Mugabe's most outspoken critics.