Attorney General in the dock

Zimbabwe Attorney General Patrick Chinamasa was in the dock on Friday on contempt of court charges, news reports said. The charges arose from his criticism of what he called lenient sentences imposed by a High Court judge on three American missionaries for possession of arms last month. The attorney general said in a statement shortly after the sentence was passed that the effective six month jail terms induced “a sense of shock and outrage in the minds of all right-thinking people”. The High Court took exception to the statement. At the hearing on Friday, Judge Feargus Blackie adjourned the case to give both defence and prosecution lawyers time to agree on grounds for referring the case to the full-bench of five Supreme Court judges, which sits as a constitutional court.