Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Zimbabwean Opposition, said today that police had tried to "inflict as much damage as they could" during a savage beating after his arrest on Sunday.

But Mr Tsvangirai, speaking to the BBC from a private Harare hospital where he received a brain scan for a suspected fractured skull, said he thought that his treatment by the security services would serve as an inspiration for the campaign to topple President Robert Mugabe.

“For the struggle, I think it’s an inspiration to everyone. There is no freedom without struggle, and there is no freedom without sacrifice,” Mr Tsvangirai was quoted as saying.

“It just shows the extent to which this desperate regime is trying to protect its power."

The Movement for Democratic Change leader was arrested along with dozens of other opposition activists on Sunday as they attempted to stage a rally in defiance of a government prohibition.

When he appeared in court briefly yesterday, he was nursing a badly swollen eye and cuts to his head.

Describing his arrest, Mr Tsvangirai said he was picked up as he tried to visit colleagues at a police station who had been arrested earlier in the day.

“It was almost as if they were waiting for me,” he said. “Before I could even settle I was subjected to a lot of beatings, in fact it was random beatings, but I think the intention was to inflict as much damage as they could."

The arrests and subsequent beatings of Mr Tsvangirai and other activists have been condemned around the world, but Mr Mugabe's Government was unapologetic today as a minister issued a stark warning that they would pay a "heavy price" for their campaign to oust the President.

“Those who incite violence, or actually cause and participate in unleashing it, are set to pay a very heavy price, regardless of who they are,” Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, the Information Minister, said in a statement.

"The Tsvangirai faction of the MDC has a long record of unleashing violence to achieve political goals. It has publicly restated its wish to use violence to overthrow Government and as a means to power. This will come to grief."

Mr Tsvangirai was reportedly taken into intensive care this morning. He has severe lacerations to his head with possible internal damage, a suspected fractured hand and deep bruising all over his body.

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