Mugabe charges opposition leader with treason

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A defiant Robert Mugabe charged Zimbabwe's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, with treason yesterday, barely 24 hours after the Commonwealth suspended the country for a year because of its flawed presidential elections.

The charge, stemming from an alleged plot to kill Mr Mugabe, came as white commercial farmers reported more attacks and a three-day national strike called by the labour movement started patchily after being declared illegal by the government.

Union leaders said war veterans were taking down the names of people who were not at work. By yesterday afternoon only a third of businesses were affected by the strike.

The treason charge against the MDC leader was in open defiance of an appeal from John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister, who chaired the Commonwealth meeting that suspended Zimbabwe from the 54-nation organisation on Tuesday. He said: "Any notion of the prosecution of the opposition leader in Zimbabwe is quite inimical to the prospect of national reconciliation."

Britain said the formal pressing of charges was a sign that Mr Mugabe had not yet understood the message that he should be striving for reconciliation with the MDC after the election. Tony Blair said: "The decision to prosecute Mr Tsvangirai is an indication of why the decision to suspend Zimbabwe is so justified."

Mr Tsvangirai's lawyer, Eric Matinenga, said the decision to charge the opposition leader was a knee-jerk reaction to the Commonwealth suspension. But Jonathan Moyo, a spokes-man for the government in Harare, said: "Nobody is above the law and it is cheap politics for anybody to commit crimes and seek refugee under allegation of political retribution."

Renson Gasela, the shadow minister of lands and agriculture and a leading member of the MDC, was formally charged with treason at the same time Mr Tsvangirai was accused.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment or the death sentence. The opposition leader denies the accusation and accuses the government of trying to destroy the political opposition. He was told to surrender his passport and released on bail.