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Zimbabwe's presidential hopeful Morgan Tsvangirai
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March 25, 2008, 17:45
The lawyer for South African pilot Brett Smythe has accused Zimbabwean police of attempting to cook up charges against his client. Innocent Chagonda has confirmed that Smythe is still being detained at the Harare central police station.
He and three others, including an MDC parliamentary candidate, were arrested while trying to secure a charter flight for presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai. The three others have since been released. Chagonda has confirmed that Smythe is a South African national.
The incident comes a few days after Tsvangirai alleged that a flight he'd previously chartered had been cancelled by authorities, to sabotage five of his rallies.
Smythe’s employers, Aviation Towards Success (ATS), say they are in the dark about the arrest of its pilot in Zimbabwe. Wessel van den Bergh, the owner of ATS, says the 28-year-old pilot had his papers in order and that he does not know why he was arrested.
He says the pilot was on a two-day trip in which he was supposed to ferry Tsvangirai to various campaign meetings. Van den Bergh says the pilot, whose relatives are abroad, sent him an SMS to inform him that he was detained at the Harare's central police station around 7am.
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