July 2001 Africa News Headlines

Thursday, July 19, 2001 - Web posted at 9:36:00 GMT

Zim farmer in court for murder of squatter

HARARE - White farmer Phillip "Blondie" Bezuidenhout, 51, appeared briefly in a magistrates court in the eastern city of Mutare yesterday on allegations of murdering a squatter by running him down in his truck.

In a two-minute hearing in a court jammed with ruling Zanu (PF) party militias, magistrate Hosiah Mujaya remanded Bezuidenhout in custody to appear again in two weeks.

No charges were put to him and he was not asked to plead.

Bezuidenhout, handcuffed and in leg-irons in the courtroom, was not legally represented.

Police had advised his lawyer not to enter the court, legal sources said, in case he was attacked by so-called guerrilla war veterans, despite the presence of scores of police, some armed with service revolvers, in and outside the court.

Lawyer Chris Ndlovu declined to comment, but the sources, who asked not to be named, said: "The war veterans wanted to have a word with him. It was not safe for him."

" On Saturday Ndlovu had to flee a mob of war veterans when they demanded to know why he was "defending a farmer who killed a black man".

The affair is expected to move to the high court in Harare today where Bezuidenhout plans to ask a judge for bail.

Magistrates are barred by Zimbabwean law from granting bail to suspects in murder cases.

- Nampa-Sapa-DPA

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