Tsvangirai asked me to kill Mugabe, ex-spy tells trial

The chief witness for the prosecution in Morgan Tsvangirai's treason trial testified yesterday that he had been specifically asked by the Zimbabwean opposition leader to arrange a coup and the killing of President Robert Mugabe.

Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli spy who runs a consultancy firm in Canada, told the high court in Harare that after being asked to kill Mr Mugabe, he arranged to set up a sting operation to record evidence against Mr Tsvangirai.

He claimed he was told by Mr Tsvangirai that sources in the British Government would finance a coup.

The basis of the state's case is a grainy and inaudible video recording secretly made by Mr Menashe in his Montreal office in December 2001 – three months before disputed presidential elections which Mr Tsvangirai lost to Mr Mugabe. Mr Tsvangirai says the recording has been doctored to incriminate him.

The opposition leader and two of his senior deputies in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Welshman Ncube and Renson Gasela, are accused of plotting to kill Mr Mugabe and seize power before the presidential election. They pleaded not guilty to the charges on Monday but face death sentences or life imprisonment if found guilty.

The chaos outside the court when the trial opened on Monday – with police manhandling diplomats, assaulting opposition supporters and arresting journalists – was not repeated yesterday and police obeyed a court order to admit the public. But Mr Menashe brought drama to the court room with a theatrical performance that prompted Mr Tsvangirai's lawyer, George Bizos, to admonish him for trivialising the court proceedings.

Mr Menashe claimed Mr Tsvangirai had asked him to describe how beautiful it was inside Mr Mugabe's official residence and give details of the furnishings. "I think he was enquiring about his future house," said Mr Menashe.

Mr Bizos interrupted: "The witness is clowning. This is a court of law not a place of entertainment. The time has come for him to be serious."

Mr Menashe claimed Mr Tsvangirai went on to promise him US$500,000 (£300,000) for the assassination, and contracts worth US$30m for his firm, Dickens and Madison, once he became president. He alleged that Mr Tsvangirai told him killing President Mugabe was the only guarantee of reforming Zimbabwe.

"I clearly heard that Mr Tsvangirai was proposing that Dickens and Madison help him and his colleagues carry out the assassination of the President of Zimbabwe and a coup d'état," said Mr Menashe.

"He [Mr Tsvangirai] said President Mugabe will not leave office unless he is carried away in a coffin. Those words were ringing in my mind."

Mr Tsvangirai and his colleagues have admitted holding meetings with Mr Menashe but insisted that they never discussed a plot to kill Mr Mugabe.

But Mr Menashe said: "The understanding in this contract was that we help eliminate, kill the President of Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe, help them do a coup d'état with the help of the commander of the air force and help them put in a transitional government."

The former Israeli spy admitted that he was biased against the Movement for Democratic Change. He said he took an ideological stance against Mr Tsvangirai's party when it was "hijacked" by Britain and whites opposed to the seizure of their land.

Mr Menashe, who once worked undercover in Zimbabwe with the approval of Mr Mugabe, said he was described as a crook by Western media because he advised clients opposed by the West. Last year he was investigated by Canadian police for allegedly trying to sell information about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi al-Fayed.