HARARE – A police investigator on Monday told the Harare High Court he was unable to prove the existence of a bank account into which Roy Bennett allegedly deposited money for use to buy weapons, a serious dent on the state’s treason case against the senior MDC party official.

The state accuses Bennett – treasurer in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T party – of plotting to overthrow President Robert Mugabe and that he deposited money into the Mozambican bank account of firearms-dealer Peter Michael Hitschmann to buy weapons to be used to assassinate the veteran leader.

But a senior police officer James Makone who led investigations into the alleged treason attempt told the court he travelled to Mozambique but only managed to obtain the number of Hitschmann’s alleged account with Banco International but did not have documentary proof of the existence of the said account.

"I am awaiting for response (to a request for proof of account) which was made (to Mozambique authorities) by the attorney general's office because there is still insufficient evidence," Makone said, under cross-examination by defence lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa.

Makone’s admission that the police could not prove existence of the Hitschmann account is the second major setback for the state’s case after the policeman last week also conceded in court that some of the guns that the state claims were bought with money supplied by Bennett were actually recovered from the home of an army officer.

The policeman claimed he mistakenly included the guns found from the army officer’s house with the lot recovered from Hitschmann’s house to which Mtetwa responded by accusing the state of falsifying evidence and inflating the number of weapons recovered from the gun-dealer in a bid to secure conviction.

Reacting to Makone’s admission yesterday that the police were yet to get documents proving the existence of Hitschmann’s account, Mtetwa accused the state of dragging Bennett to trial before concluding investigations in a matter in which the MDC politician faces a possible death penalty or life imprisonment.

"Are you saying the accused was brought to trial on a matter (that is still under investigations) yet the accused is facing very serious charges," she said.

Mtetwa also dismissed as fake emails that the police claim were written by Bennett to Hitschmann and which incriminate the MDC official.

The trial continues today with a second state witness to testifying.

The state seeks to prove to court that guns and other weapons found at Hitschmann’s home were intended for use to assassinate Mugabe and that they were bought with money supplied by Bennett.   

But Hitschmann was found not guilty of treason in an earlier ruling by the High Court which also found that some of the weapons seized from the firearms-dealer were lawfully in his possession.

Hitschmann has also claimed that investigators tortured him in a bid to obtain from him statements that could incriminate Bennett. – ZimOline