SW Radio Africa (London)
Violet Gonda
2 July 2009
Michael Peter Hitschmann, who was initially arrested for allegedly plotting to assassinate Robert Mugabe at his birthday bash in Manicaland in 2006, was released on Thursday.
Although the assassination plot charges were dropped, Hitschmann went on to serve a total of three years and four months in jail after police said they found an arms cache at his home and he was charged with possession of firearms without a licence.
In an interview with SW Radio Africa shortly after his release the former police constable says he was a registered firearms dealer and the weapons found at his home were never hidden. He said since the farm invasions he acted as a conduit for firearms for the police. He would collect firearms and weapons from evicted commercial farmers and take them to the police armoury. Hitschmann said he was doing the job the police were supposed to do and claimed the receipts he got when he handed weapons into the police, mysteriously disappeared when he was arrested.
Hitschmann said shortly after his arrest he was taken to an army barracks in Mutare and tortured severely and forced to write confessions that he had conspired with several people, including some from both the MDC and ZANU PF, to assassinate Mugabe.
"I was kicked in the testicles a few times and then they resorted to using cigarettes on my buttocks. Although that was a terrible experience I was lucky enough to pass out quite early when they started with the cigarette burns," he narrated.
"But more effectively they arrested my wife and my son." He said he was told that if he didn't confess, his family would join him at the army barracks.
Several police officers and MDC officials, including Giles Mutsekwa, who is now the MDC co-Home Affairs Minister and Roy Bennett, the MDC Deputy Minister of Agriculture designate, were arrested in connection with Hitschmann's case. Mutsekwa and the others were acquitted, but Bennett is still facing charges of attempting to commit acts of banditry and terrorism.
Meanwhile, Hitschmann heard through his lawyers that the State prosecutors want him to stand as a key witness in the trial against Bennett. But Hitschmann says 'there is nothing to testify about." He said the State would need to clarify what it is they want from him as there is no connection between him and the MDC official. "The thing doesn't make any sense, because they are charging him (Bennett) with exactly the same charge that they charged me with - for which I have been acquitted."
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