Posted on 02/19/2003 4:12:11 AM PST by Clive
Harare - The main state witness in the high treason trial of Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Tuesday accused the defence lawyer of being racist and anti-feminist.
George Bizos, who is Tsvangirai's defence counsel in the case, has represented most leading anti-apartheid activists in South Africa, including Nelson Mandela and his former wife Winnie as well as President Thabo Mbeki's father.
"Mr Bizos, your reputation is well known in the United States, as a racist, as an anti-feminist," shouted Ari Ben Menashe as he came in for a ninth day of cross-examination in the trial, focussed around tapes he made where Tsvangirai and top aides allegedly plotted to assassinate President Robert Mugabe.
Tsvangirai and two other senior members of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) face the death penalty if convicted in the trial, which went into its 12th day on Tuesday.
It has almost become tradition for Menashe to heckle Bizos and on several occasions the judge, Justice Paddington Garwe, has asked the witness to watch his language when answering questions.
In an interview after the court session, Bizos rejected to journalists the claim that he was racist.
"The people of South Africa know my reputation as a non-racist and as a human rights lawyer," said the 74-year-old attorney, who has been practising in South Africa for 49 years.
The Greek-South African attorney is probably best-known for his role in the Rivonia trial of 1963, which saw Mandela imprisoned in apartheid South Africa for 27 years, but saved him from the death penalty.
Among the other well-known anti-apartheid activists he has represented during are Albertina Sisulu, wife of Walter Sisulu. He has also defended the family of rights activist Steve Biko.
"I have done hundreds of cases in South Africa," he told journalists.
He has been voted the top trial lawyer of the year 2001 by the US-based International Association of Trial Lawyers. He has also lectured in human rights law at the University of Columbia in New York.
On Tuesday the court went through a transcript of an audio tape of a meeting held in London between Menashe and Tsvangirai and their respective officials at which the alleged plot to assassinate Mugabe was discussed.
The court had to rely on the transcript prepared by Tara Tomas - an officer from Ben Menashe's consultancy firm, who attended the meeting and recorded its proceedings - because the tape itself is inaudible. - Sapa-AFP
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