The terrorism trial of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's aide Roy Bennett was postponed yesterday, in a case that has unleashed Zimbabwe's worst political crisis since the formation of a unity government.
The delay came a day after Tsvangirai suspended ties with "unreliable" President Robert Mugabe's camp after eight months of fragile partnership amid unresolved disputes over key posts and a crackdown on his supporters.
"It has been agreed by (all) concerned that the matter be postponed. Instead of starting Monday, it starts at a later date," one of Bennett's legal team Beatrice Mtetwa told reporters outside the Harare High Court.
The court last Friday ordered the release of Bennett, who was arrested in February on his return to Zimbabwe, after his bail was revoked by the Mutare magistrates' court two days earlier.
Tsvangirai earlier shelved cooperation with Mugabe's ZANU-PF, saying Bennett's case showed the "fiction of the credibility and integrity" of the partnership with his 85-year-old long-term rival.
"It is our right to disengage from a dishonest and unreliable partner," he told journalists.
Tsvangirai said he would not quit government but would only resume ties once the unity pact was fully in place and all disputes were resolved.
MDC spokesman and cabinet member Nelson Chamisa told AFP yesterday that Bennett's bail and release was "just part of the process", but said the party remained in government.
"We are hoping that our guarantors, that is (regional blocs) SADC and the AU will look into this issue expeditiously and rescue our country from the jaws of abyss," he said.
"We have not disengaged from government; we have disengaged from ZANU-PF."
Bennett, a white former coffee farmer whose land was expropriated under Mugabe's land reforms, was released late last Friday in eastern town Mutare.
His case immediately became a symbol of the challenges facing the power-sharing pact after his arrest last February, an hour before the unity government was to be sworn in.
The MDC treasurer was detained on his return from three years in neighbouring South Africa where he fled after being implicated in a plot to kill Mugabe. After several changes, he now faces charges that accuse him of possessing weapons for purposes of insurgency, banditry, sabotage or terrorism, which carry maximum penalties of life imprisonment or the death penalty.
The state is pushing for his trial to start on October 27 with Bennett expected at the Mutare High Court tomorrow for the date hearing.
"We feel it's too early given that we were given only two days' notice for trial commencement instead of the minimum 10 days. However we want this matter to be settled," said Mtetwa.
Bennett is ready to have his name cleared by the courts, another member of his legal team Harrison Nkomo earlier told AFP.
"He is more than ready for the trial. He has a strong character, he has gone through a lot. He came back into the country so that he can clear his name."
Following Tsvangirai's snub of Mugabe, the US urged the international community to keep up pressure on the veteran to implement the power-sharing pact underpinning the government.
Canada last Friday said reports of ongoing politically motivated persecutions, including Bennett's rearrest, were "deeply troubling", and called on regional leaders to use their influence to help resolve Zimbabwe's continuing political crisis.
Tsvangirai and his long-time rival agreed to the unity government nearly a year after disputed polls, which saw Mugabe handed the presidency in a one-man run-off, and plunged the country into deeper economic and political crisis.