Zimbabwe Opposition Official Charged With Rreason

Zimbabwean police have charged a senior official of the opposition MDC with treason, the party said on Friday, just hours after a unity cabinet was sworn in.

"Police have again changed charges on Roy Bennett. They have now charged him with treason," the party said in a statement.

"These charges are scandalous, vexatious and without bases in law, but are simply politically motivated, simply intended to justify the continued incarceration of Roy Bennett."

Police earlier fired live ammunition in the air to disperse opposition MDC supporters who had surrounded the police station in Mutare in the east of the country, the MDC said.

Bennett was nominated by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai as deputy minister of agriculture.

While the MDC said Bennett must be immediately released unconditionally and unharmed, it did not threaten any action that could endanger the new unity government.

Bennett has been living in exile in South Africa after fleeing the country about two years ago because police wanted to question him in connection with the discovery of an arms cache in eastern Zimbabwe.

Foreign investors and Western donors want concrete signs of stability in Zimbabwe. They have made it clear that funds will not flow to the southern African country until a democratic government is created and economic reforms are made.

A new political crisis could deepen the scepticism of Western countries whose confidence in the new administration is seen as essential for Zimbabwe's economic recovery.