Opposition to contest member's jail term

Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is to ask the courts to review a sentence handed to jailed MDC MP Roy Bennett. On Thursday last week the ruling party, ZANU-PF, used its majority in the house to impose a sentence of one year in jail with hard labour on Bennett for pushing Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa during a debate on 18 May. A ZANU-PF dominated parliamentary committee had recommended, after investigation, that Bennett be sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment, with three months suspended. An attempt by the MDC to challenge the committee's report in court was blocked by the Speaker of Parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who issued an order in terms of the Privileges, Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act barring the courts from hearing Bennett's case. The subsequent vote on the committee's recommendation was decided by the ruling party's majority in parliament, with 53 ZANU-PF members voting to commit Bennett to prison against the MDC's 42 votes opposing the motion. Bennett has been in custody since Thursday last week. MDC secretary for legal affairs David Coltart told IRIN "the punishment of Bennett was grossly unjust". He said the sentence in criminal cases with more aggravating circumstances was usually a Zim $80,000 (about US $14) fine or a jail term of 50 days for non-payment of the fine. "Our legal team is looking at a variety of options, including a review of the sentence by the courts and a constitutional challenge to the method that was used to come up with this sentence. We are in the process of gathering an international team of lawyers and, at the earliest possible time, we will be going to the courts to challenge this," Coltart said. Human rights lawyer Brian Kagoro also questioned the severity of the sentence, saying that in an ordinary criminal court Bennett's case would have qualified as a common-law assault case. Bennett pushed Chinamasa to the floor after the latter had referred to his ancestors as "murderers" and "thieves" who stole Zimbabwe's land from blacks. Bennett has become the first MP to be jailed for contempt of parliament and the first person in the country to be sentenced outside the court process.