The trial on terrorism charges of Roy Bennett, a close aide of the Zimbabwean Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, began yesterday amid claims that the evidence against him was based solely on a confession of an associate made under torture.

Mr Bennett, 52, treasurer of Mr Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change and Deputy Agriculture Minister-designate, was arrested in February, hours before he was due to be sworn in, on charges of possession of weapons to commit acts of banditry, insurgency and terror which carry the death penalty.

It emerged in the Harare High Court that the evidence against Mr Bennett was based solely on a “confession” that mentioned him in an alleged plot to assassinate Mr Mugabe in 2006.

Peter Hitschmann, 52, an officially registered arms dealer, who is also a white Zimbabwean, wrote the statement after being tortured, Beatrice Mtetwa, a lawyer, said as the trial opened.

Mr Hitschmann has said previously that military intelligence interrogators burnt him on the buttocks with lighted cigarettes until he fainted from the pain. He went on trial in 2007 for treason and possession of weapons for an alleged plot to kill Mr Mugabe.

“It is unsworn and it is not even signed,” Ms Mtetwa said of the confession. “This evidence does not exist.” She asked the judge Chinembiri Bhunu, to censure Johannes Tomana, the Attorney-General, for citing demonstrable falsehoods as evidence.

She said that when Mr Hitschmann found out he was to be subpoenaed to give evidence against Mr Bennett he approached a senior human rights lawyer to appeal to Mr Tomana that he had no evidence he could give against Mr Bennett.

Within hours of having written to Mr Tomana the lawyer was arrested by police at his home for “attempting to defeat the course of justice,” and spent the night in a squalid police cell.

Mr Tsvangirai called on Mr Mugabe to stop the malicious prosecution. Another of Mr Tsvangirai’s constant demands over the past nine months since the inauguration of the coalition Government has been that Mr Mugabe swear in Mr Bennett as deputy minister, to no avail.

During the proceedings police brought into the court room boxes and sacks of what appeared to be ammunition and fuses, and at least one rifle — the munitions Mr Bennett was alleged to have been stockpiling.

It was in the same teak-panelled court room in 2004 that Mr Tsvangirai faced the death penalty for allegedly plotting to overthrow Mr Mugabe. After 21 months the judge ruled that it was an elaborately stage-managed conspiracy to have Mr Tsvangirai hanged legally.

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