Top Zimbabwe opposition figure arrested

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

HARARE (AFP) — The leader of a rebel faction of Zimbabwe's MDC party was arrested Sunday over a written attack on Robert Mugabe, becoming the most senior opposition politician to be detained ahead of a run-off election.

Arthur Mutambara, who recently pledged to work with the main Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai to help oust President Mugabe later this month, was arrested up at his home in Harare, his party and lawyer said.

"He was arrested for publishing falsehoods and for contempt of court for an opinion article he wrote in April," the lawyer Harrison Nkomo told AFP.

One of his senior allies, former lawmaker Trudy Stevenson, confirmed that Mutambara was picked up at his Harare home by police on Sunday morning and taken to the central...