Tsvangirai escapes WikiLeaks prosecution

A PANEL set up early this year to probe alleged treason by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and leading ZANU-PF critics, has recommended that there are no legal grounds to prosecute individuals on the basis of accounts contained in WikiLeaks files, The Financial Gazette's Political Editor Clemence Manyukwe has revealed.

The panel, set up by Attorney-General (AG), Johannes Tomana, was composed of some of the country's top legal minds, in terms of Section 76 of the Constitution, to sift through the WikiLeaks cables for possible breach of the country's laws.

The panel had been put together after whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks released classified American government cables that revealed United States policy on different countries, including Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe cables had revealed conversations allegedly made between American diplomats and Tsvangirai, Finance Minister Tendai Biti and senior ZANU-PF officials, among others.

One cable, titled The End is Nigh, crafted in 2007 by the then US Ambassador, Christopher Dell, said Washington should oppose the formation of a unity government in Zimbabwe as that would unnecessarily delay change.

It also described Tsvangirai as a flawed figure who needed massive hand holding and branded President Robert Mugabe a ruthless, but brilliant tactician.

Informed sources this week said the panel has prepared a 250-page report for Tomana, advising him that there was no basis for prosecution of anyone named in the sensational leaks.

The AG has so far kept the sensational report under a tight lid.

Contacted for comment on the report, Tomana said: "That report is meant for me. It's a confidential report. That was a serious undertaking and it's a confidential report. Do you want to  assist the culprits?" At the time the committee was established, Tomana said he was taking the first step to establish whether there was a prima facie case to cause a formal investigation by police, and prosecution by his office.

"I have invoked Section 76 Sub-section 5 of the Constitution and the panel is already in place. It consists of five top practicing lawyers who are members of the Law Society of Zimbabwe. I am seeking a professional legal opinion from registered lawyers to see whether there is need to prosecute anyone following revelations by the WikiLeaks website," Tomana said then.

A source indicated to this paper that the mandate of the panel had been to investigate whether or not the laws of Zimbabwe were violated.

Said the source: "Certainly, the committee found out that the WikiLeaks were, in fact, revealing on an international relations perspective and also how foreign powers were interfering in the internal affairs of the country. It also found out that in Zimbabwe's body politic there were individuals who were willing tools of foreign agendas.

"However, the leaks could not, on their own, be used to sustain criminal prosecution against certain politicians such as (Prime Minister) Tsvangirai. The committee also observed that embassies implicated in the leaks, the US, German, the Dutch and the British, enjoyed diplomatic immunity in terms of Zimbabwe's laws and the Vienna Convention and therefore no criminal action could be taken."

In February last year, a cable by the US Ambassador to Zimbabwe Charles Ray, quoted a ZANU-PF official only named as Mudarikwa telling the envoy that ZANU-PF "was like a stick of TNT, susceptible to ignition and disintegration".

He likened ZANU-PF to a troop of baboons incessantly fighting among themselves, but coming together to face an external threat.

ZANU-PF had implicated Uzumba Member of Parliament, Simbaneuta Mudarikwa, for the remarks, but he denied the allegation.