Zimbabwe witness 'a fraudster'

Tsvangirai says he is being framed Lawyers defending Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on treason charges have accused the key prosecution witness of being a serial fraudster.

They say that Canada-based political consultant Ari Ben-Menashe video-taped a meeting with Mr Tsvangirai as part of a government plot to stifle the opposition.

Mr Tsvangirai and two colleagues from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) pleaded not guilty to treason charges when the trial began on Monday.

Mr Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli intelligence officer, says the three contracted him to assassinate President Robert Mugabe before last year's elections.

Mr Mugabe won but international observers said the poll was marred by violence and fraud and Mr Tsvangirai is contesting the result in court.

South African anti-apartheid lawyer George Bizos said prosecutors would not give him any information on Mr Ben-Menashe's work for the government, though the consultant testified that he had been paid about $1m for his lobbying work.

Prosecutors said Mr Ben Menashe's services to the government were unrelated to the treason charges, Mr Bizos told Judge Paddington Garwe.

"There is a similarity between the fraud we say was committed against the MDC and its office bearers and a number of other frauds that have been committed by the witness and his companies by interfering with high profile political matters, getting money and then turning the tables against the people to whom the fraudulent representations were made," Mr Bizos said.

The lawyer submitted documents of a London arbitration court ruling that one of Mr Ben-Menashe's companies had failed to deliver $7million-worth of promised corn to Zambia.

Mr Ben-Menashe said that deal was altered by former Zambian President Frederick Chiluba and was still being contested by lawyers.

The court has also been watching the grainy video, which Mr Ben-Menashe recorded as evidence against Mr Tsvangirai.

"The discussion was never about the elimination of Mugabe, it was about the election, and the post-election outcome."

Mr Ben-Menashe said on Tuesday that the MDC had signed a $500,000 contract with his firm and promised $10m to the head of the air force, Air Marshal Perence Shiri, to stage a coup after Mr Mugabe's assassination.

Mr Tsvangirai had said sources in the British Government would provide the money, according to Mr Ben-Menashe.

"He also asked us to enlist the United States Government to assist the MDC in carrying out his plot," he said on Thursday.

If found guilty, Mr Tsvangirai, Welshman Ncube and Renson Gasela could face the death penalty.

Mr Tsvangirai was the main challenger to Mr Mugabe during last March's presidential elections.

Previous treason charges against Mr Tsvangirai were dropped when they were ruled unconstitutional.

The trial comes as the European Union is considering whether to renew sanctions on Zimbabwe's leader, which are due to run out on 18 February.

Zimbabwe Court Told Witness Made Up Treason Plot - Thu Feb 6, 4:29 PM ET - By Cris Chinaka

[Full Text] HARARE (Reuters) - A defense lawyer in the treason trial of Zimbabwe's opposition leader Thursday accused the key prosecution witness of setting up the case and taking $1 million from the government.

Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai and two senior party officials face a possible death penalty if convicted of plotting to kill President Robert Mugabe. The MDC officials all say they are innocent.

Tsvangirai's chief defense lawyer attacked key prosecution witness Ari Ben-Menashe, a Canadian-based political consultant who had said he video-taped Tsvangirai discussing Mugabe's assassination and seeking help to stage a coup.

Advocate George Bizos alleged he was an unreliable witness with a history of defrauding southern African governments and questioned Ben-Menashe about business deals. In particular, Bizos asked about a commodity brokerage which he alleged had taken millions of dollars from Zambia but failed to supply its government with promised grain.

Bizos said Ben-Menashe had taken $100,000 from the MDC but failed to deliver the promised political consultancy.

Ben-Menashe had also taken about $1 million from the Zimbabwe government, Bizos said, but he did not elaborate.

Ben-Menashe said his business problems were "not as simple as that" and objected to the fraud allegations.

"We intend proving that he is a fraudster," said Bizos.

A furious Ben-Menashe interrupted him, shaking his head and saying: "I really resent that word (fraudster). We are not on trial here, and I have not been convicted of any fraud."

Bizos said Ben-Menashe had deliberately lied to Tsvangirai that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. government were involved in his consultancy, and he was refusing to disclose the identity of a man he said posed as an American agent during his video-taped meeting with Tsvangirai.

Responding to suggestions by Bizos that he repeatedly used the word "eliminate" during the taped conversation in order to trap Tsvangirai, Ben-Menashe responded: "Usually we are honest people but if we see murderers we call them out."

Earlier, Ben-Menashe told the court Tsvangirai had agreed Mugabe should be "terminated" within 10 days of the meeting held in Montreal, Canada. A video recording of the meeting is crucial to the prosecution's case.

Ben-Menashe said his company alerted Canadian, Zimbabwean and U.S. authorities to the plot after meeting Tsvangirai twice and arranged a third meeting to gather videotaped evidence. He says he had no intention of killing anyone.

The defense team says the video was deliberately altered.

Tsvangirai lost to Mugabe in an election three months after the Montreal meeting. Britain and other Western countries accuse Mugabe of rigging the polls. [End]

Feb 22, 2002 - Tsvangirai video evidence 'doctored' *** THE surveillance video footage which purportedly shows Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe has been extensively "doctored", evidence made available to the Zimbabwe Independent this week shows.

Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) director Andrew Moyse said the video footage shown last week by Australia's Special Services Broadcasting (SBS) station was tampered with. Moyse said a common cut-and-paste editing method was used. "Notably, what Tsvangirai was heard to say did not match the titles on the screen," he said.***

Feb 2, 2003 - Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's opposition leader, goes on trial for his life tomorrow*** The defence will claim that the video had been doctored to misrepresent the conversation and that key exchanges are inaudible. The prosecution's chief witness is Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli intelligence agent who runs the Canadian firm, Dickens and Madson.

Last week he said that he had been subpoenaed to appear and would testify if called, ending speculation in Zimbabwe that he would not attend the trial. The timing of the hearing may be awkward for the government as it launches a diplomatic offensive to persuade the Commonwealth "troika" of South Africa, Nigeria and Australia to lift its suspension. The case also comes as Zimbabwe attempts to take advantage of a French invitation to visit Paris to have sanctions lifted on Mr Mugabe and his allies.

"I think Tsvangirai and his colleagues are going to use this trial to highlight Mugabe's violent campaign against the opposition, his record on human rights," said a Western diplomat in Harare. "I think Mugabe's politics will end up in the dock and the president's and the government's image is likely to suffer."

Last week, Mr Tsvangirai said: "We will defend ourselves strongly because we are innocent. We're victims of a government frame-up."***

The guy has been exposed as a fraud and con.

Who is Ari Ben-Menashe? This is what Media Research Center found out ***BEN-MENASHE. Ari Ben-Menashe appeared three times in the first show, highlighted as an Israeli intelligence officer. PBS reported that "Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe says he was one of half a dozen Israelis sent to Paris at Casey's request to help coordinate arms deliveries" and "Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe claimed that he saw intelligence reports about Casey's trip to Madrid." After Newsweek and The New Republic published their exposés of the sources pushing the October Surprise story, including the fact that Ben-Menashe's wife called him a liar, Frontline's second program admitted: "His credibility with reporters collapsed because some of his assertions proved implausible, particularly his claim about George Bush."

THE HASHEMIS. While Frontline disavowed Brenneke and Ben-Menashe, the producers stood by their belief in the Hashemi brothers, Jamshid and Cyrus, a pair of Iranian arms dealers. This despite the New Republic exposé, which declared Jamshid Hashemi had "even worse credibility problems" than Brenneke and Ben-Menashe; and the Village Voice placed Cyrus as flying from Paris instead of to Paris on August 14, when the meetings supposedly took place. *** ____________________________________________________________

Zimbabwe Diamond Deals Exposed - Zimbabwe Independent ^ | February 22, 2002 | Vincent Kahiya - *** SENIOR Zanu PF politicians and members of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces have with the help of Canadian lobbyists Dickens & Madson turned Zimbabwe into a hub for trade in "blood" diamonds illegally brought into the country from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), it emerged this week.

The Zimbabwe Independent has been told how gemstones from the DRC have been laundered to line the pockets of Zanu PF big-wigs.

American international diamond buyer, John Marsischky, managing director of gemstones company Flashes of Color, revealed in an interview this week that Dickens & Madson, the company which last week claimed it was hired by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai to assassinate President Mugabe, has been working as a conduit for the transfer of funds between Zimbabwean officials and buyers.

Dickens & Madson, Marsischky said, were employed to do security checks on international diamond buyers. Marsischky said he met representatives of the lobbyists last year when they did a security check on Flashes of Color before he met businessman Bob Codrington who said he represented ZDF commanders in the diamond trade. ***

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