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Zimbabwe Opposition Official Charged With Treason, Lawyers Say

Zimbabwe Opposition Official Charged With Treason, Lawyers Say

(Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwean authorities have charged a senior official of the country’s main opposition party with treason for comments attributed to him in a newspaper report on Monday, according to lawyers in the capital, Harare.

Job Sikhala, the deputy secretary-general of the Movement for Democratic Change, “presented himself to the police this morning and they’ve charged him with attempting to overthrow a constitutionally elected government,” Obey Shava, a lawyer with Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said in an interview. “He denies the charges, but we are now trying to go to court.”

Sikhala was quoted by the Harare-based NewsDay as saying the MDC will overthrow President Emmerson Mnangagwa before his term of office expires in 2023.

To contact the reporters on this story: Desmond Kumbuka in Harare at dkumbuka@bloomberg.net;Godfrey Marawanyika in Harare at gmarawanyika@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Hilton Shone at hshone@bloomberg.net, Alastair Reed

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