A senior member of Zimbabwe's opposition MDC Alliance,
Tendai Biti, has been denied asylum by neighbouring Zambia.
Zimbabwe's police accuse Mr Biti of inciting violence
following last month's election. Zambian Foreign Minister Joe Malanji told the
BBC that Mr Biti's grounds for asylum were weak.
He was being kept in "safe custody" until he
returned to Zimbabwe, the minister said.
Earlier, his lawyer said his client had been detained at
the border with Zambia by the Zimbabwean authorities.
An alleged Zambian police report circulating on social
media states that Zimbabwean officials tried to detain Mr Biti after he had
crossed into Zambia.
The opposition politician shouted out for help and about 300
Zimbabwean travellers blocked their government's security officers from making
an arrest, the report says.
Zambian officials then intervened and threatened to arrest
the Zimbabwean officers for "executing their mandate on Zambian
soil".
Zambia's foreign minister told the BBC that Mr Biti's
grounds for asylum were "not meritorious".
There was great optimism that July's election would bring
real change after the end of Robert Mugabe's 37-year rule last November.
But last week six people were killed after the military
intervened to curb opposition protests in the capital, Harare.
Correspondents say there is a climate of fear in Zimbabwe,
with some members of the opposition going into hiding.
The electoral commission declared that President Emmerson
Mnangagwa won the poll but the MDC Alliance alleges it was rigged.
The opposition says its candidate, Nelson Chamisa, was the
victor and the results were manipulated.
Mr Biti's arrest warrant, seen by the BBC, says he
"unlawfully" announced that Mr Chamisa had won the presidential
election.
He was the minister of finance in a unity government formed
after disputed elections in 2008 - and is credited with helping stabilise the
economy after years of hyperinflation.
The MDC Alliance has confirmed that it will challenge the
presidential election result in court.
A party lawyer, Thabani Mpofu, was quoted by AFP news
agency as saying the official outcome had been a "total negation of the
will of the people".
Altogether the police are hunting for nine senior
opposition officials in connection with post-election violence. bbc
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