HARARE – Lawyers representing Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s top aide Roy Bennett want terrorism charges against him dropped saying the state's case was weak.

“We submit that the facts presented by the state are not sufficient enough to have a conviction against the accused,” defence lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said in her submission to High Court Judge Chinembiri Bhunu on Monday.

“The entire state case is based on fiction and does not warrant the accused to be placed on his defence. It would be a miscarriage of justice to place the accused on his defence.”

She said the laptop on which the police generated the emails which allegedly showed correspondence between Bennett and gun dealer Michael Peter Hitschmann had also been tempered with.

“There is no evidence before this court that the laptop in Muderedzwa’s office is the same as the one obtained from Hitschsmann’s office. There is absolutely nothing which the accused is expected to respond to at this stage,” Mtetwa said.

She said the emails that had been submitted by the state were “bundles of worthless pieces of paper” which does not in any way implicate the accused in a plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe.

Prosecutors say Hitschmann implicated Bennett in 2006 when he was arrested after being found in possession of firearms, claims the gun dealer denies saying he was tortured into making the confessions during interrogation at a military barracks in March that year. – ZimOnline