Harare — THE prosecution yesterday closed its case in the terrorism trial of MDC-T treasurer Roy Bennett and the defence immediately launched an application for discharge of the politician arguing the State had failed to prove a case against him.

Mrs Beatrice Mtetwa, with the assistance of Mr Trust Maanda, submitted that the summary of the State's case tendered in court at the beginning of the trial was pregnant with bald allegations that were never proved in the trial.

She told the court that the evidence led so far proved Bennett was an appropriate candidate for discharge at the end of the State case, adding that there was no basis for placing him on his defence.

The court heard that Bennett was charged under a repealed section of the Public Order and Security Act and that the allegations occurred well after the section had been repealed.

"Firstly, the relevant section of POSA has since been repealed by section 282 of the Act 23 of 2004.

"It is common cause to both the State and defence that the allegations stem from 2002 to 2006. It is quite clear even from the State's summary that the prosecution is in fact relying on activities that allegedly occurred after 2004.

"No evidence has been led to prove that the alleged offence occurred during the life of the now repealed section, which is within the confines of 2002 and 2004," she said.

Ms Mtetwa also argued that the State tendered a false summary of evidence in court on the evidence of police Chief Superintendent Sipho James Makone.

"It was summarised that Makone had bank statements showing Hitschmann received US$5 000 from Bennett to fund the terrorism operations (but it) was never proven in the trial.

"We are now aware that even the summarised evidence of Mr Makone is false because under cross-examination, he confirmed he had no such bank statements," Ms Mtetwa said. Ms Mtetwa said the State failed to prove the nexus between its key witness Hitschmann and Bennett.

She said the idea of planning to topple the Government was only mentioned in the summary of the case but was never supported in the trial.

The prosecution, she said, failed to prove that Hitschmann actually purchased the weapons, as per alleged plan.

According to the defence, nothing was testified to prove the alleged arrangement by Bennett and Hitschmann to demolish a microwave link besides expert evidence by a TelOne expert who defined a microwave link and explained the possible consequences in the event it was destroyed.

She said the alleged use of detonators and grenades in the demolition and the use of VHF radios for communication in furthering the terrorism agenda were only stated in the indictment papers without any substantiation.

It was also submitted that the State's case crumbled when their key witness dismissed their allegations in court to an extent that they impeached him.

Ms Mtetwa said no evidence was placed before the court to prove that the e-mails purportedly sent between Hitschmann and Bennett were actually from them considering that e-mails can be created anywhere by anyone in the world without even the knowledge of the name bearers.

The court heard that there was no proof that the laptop was actually in the hands of the police and that no one tampered with it.

No serial numbers were taken from the laptop and no one knows how it got into the office of the then officer commanding police in Manicaland Senior Assistant Commissioner Ronald Muderedzwa for printing of e-mails.

The case continues tomorrow with Attorney-General Mr Johannes Tomana responding to the application.