Zimbabwe opposition figure wins SAfrica asylum-SAPA
Source: Reuters
JOHANNESBURG, May 13 (Reuters) - South Africa has granted political asylum to Zimbabwean former opposition legislator Roy Bennett, who fled into exile last year after being accused of involvement in a plot to kill President Robert Mugabe. Bennett, a former legislator for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was denied asylum in South Africa in May 2006 but has been in the country ever since. "I am very happy that it is finally over and I have been granted the (asylum) status," Bennett was quoted as saying by the South African Press Association (SAPA). "I was very disturbed in the beginning when my application was refused even though it was very clear-cut and evident that my life was in danger because of my political beliefs," he said. Bennett, a former farmer who was jailed for eight months in 2004 for assaulting a cabinet minister during parliamentary debate, was one of the few white Zimbabweans to remain active in politics after Mugabe's decision in 2000 to seize white-owned farms to give to landless blacks. He was barred from standing in parliamentary elections held while he was serving his sentence in March 2005. Bennett was among eight people, including a sitting MDC legislator, accused of plotting to topple the government and assassinate Mugabe after security forces found what they said was an arms cache in the eastern border city of Mutare. The MDC has denied involvement in any such plot against the government, and the opposition and rights groups say the charges were part of Mugabe's campaign to silence his critics.
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