Return
At the end of January 2009, after several years in exile, he returned to Zimbabwe to join a debate within the MDC to decide whether or not to agree to the power-sharing government with Mugabe. After the MDC ultimately agreed to share power with ZANU-PF, Morgan Tsvangirai designated Bennett as Deputy Minister of Agriculture on 10 February 2009.
On 13 February, he was arrested again while trying to (legally) leave Zimbabwe on a private plane at Charles Prince Airport. He was brought to police stations in Goromonzi and Mutare on that day. He was charged with treason, and the MDC reported that he had been denied food in jail.
Charges were later replaced with those of "conspiring to acquire arms with a view to disrupting essential services". When a magistrate ordered Bennett to be released on remand, the magistrate himself was arrested because "he has passed a judgment that is not popular with the state", and was charged with criminal abuse of office. Bennett was released from prison on bail on 12 March 2009, but was ordered back on 14 October 2009. On 16 October 2009, Judge Hungwe instructed the prison to release Roy Bennett on his old bail conditions.
On Monday May 10, 2010, Roy Bennett was acquitted. On the day of his acquittal, fresh charges were brought against him by CID Law and Order detectives for illegally storing grain. As there were no grounds for these accusations, he was instead charged of perjury and contempt of court. After warrants for his arrest were issued, Roy Bennett has been in exile in South Africa since September 2010.
Read more about this topic: Roy Bennett (politician)
Famous quotes containing the word return:
“The return of the asymmetrical Saturday was one of those small events that were interior, local, almost civic and which, in tranquil lives and closed societies, create a sort of national bond and become the favorite theme of conversation, of jokes and of stories exaggerated with pleasure: it would have been a ready- made seed for a legendary cycle, had any of us leanings toward the epic.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)