Australian police on Tuesday said they would work with international bodies to investigate rape allegations against Zimbabwe’s president Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mnangagwa, 79, was accused of sexual assault by a now
33-year-old woman dating back to 2004 when she was a 15-year-old Form 3 pupil
at Loreto High School in Silobela.
Susan Mutami, a health services professional, walked into a
police station in Brisbane on Monday and filed sexual abuse charges against the
Zanu PF leader. We can name her after she went public with her allegations on
Twitter.
Matt Adams, a spokesman with the Queensland Police Service,
declined to discuss details of Mutami’s complaint filed at Mount Ommaney Police
Station, three days after she went public with the rape allegations.
In an e-mailed response to questions from ZimLive, Adams
said Tuesday: “For confidentiality and privacy reasons, we are unable to
provide any information other than to advise Queensland Police will liaise
with, and refer any inquiries to international jurisdictions.”
George Charamba, the official spokesman for Mnangagwa,
dismissed the allegations as “gossip.” He said Mnangagwa would not be
commenting.
The scandal has cast a pall over Mnangagwa’s bid to seek
re-election as Zanu PF leader at a congress expected in October. His former
deputy, Kembo Mohadi, resigned for lesser reasons over revelations he organised
sex romps in his government office with married women, including the wife of an
intelligence officer.
Mutami has described in graphic detail Mnangagwa’s anatomy
to back up her allegations. She claimed Mnangagwa has a birth mark on the inner
left thigh and another on one of his butt cheeks.
She also revealed that she previously told Zimbabwe’s first
lady Grace Mugabe and the current Zimbabwe National Army commander Lieutenant
General David Sigauke about the abuse.
She claims local government minister July Moyo was present
at the Golden Mile Hotel in Kwekwe when, as a schoolgirl, Mnangagwa led her to
one of the rooms and raped her for the first time.
Legal experts say an international investigation targeting
a head of state could be a “dead end”, especially without the cooperation of
local police. Politically, Mnangagwa could still pay the price with his deputy
Constantino Chiwenga reportedly weighing up an unprecedented challenge to a
sitting Zanu PF leader, the party in power since the end of colonial rule in
1980.
A top Zimbabwean lawyer explained: “Every country has
criminal laws either based on common law or they are codified, meaning there’s
a statute which defines what constitutes a crime. Some crimes are domestic,
meaning local, but local can vary from province to state to nation. Then there
are international crimes like terrorism, murder, sexual offences, money
laundering and treason which are extraditable.
“Extradition works on reciprocity. The rape of a minor or
paedophilia is an extraditable offence worldwide. The next level is then to say
if it’s an extraditable offence, and if there’s no reciprocity from the country
where the offence was committed, you deal with Interpol and the United Nations
if the person is a political figure. Without reciprocity, only international
bodies can execute an arrest warrant and acquire evidence, including witness
statements.
“This person believes they can’t get justice in Zimbabwe.
Australia is obliged by its responsibility to citizens to pursue this as far as
it can take it.”
But the lawyer admitted that it would take a change of
leader, or government, for Mnangagwa to face justice not least because the constitution
says a sitting president has immunity. Australia also has frosty diplomatic
relations with Zimbabwe after imposing travel and financial sanctions on the
country’s leaders two decades ago.
“In terms of legal recourse, in this part of the world, it’s
a bit of a dead end especially looking at the guy’s age. But the political
dynamics can change anytime, and that’s what the police and prosecutors would
be praying for,” the lawyer added, speaking on condition they were not named.
Mutami told police that Mnangagwa – then a cabinet minister
– pursued her after meeting her during an interschools athletics competition in
2003. She was in Form 2 and in uniform.
Mnangagwa, 79, eventually took her into his home in Kwekwe
when her father died in 2005.
She claims the Zanu PF leader, who became president after a
military coup in November 2017, raped her several times over many years.
Mutami said during her stay at Mnangagwa’s farm between
2005 and 2007, she once tried to tell his wife, Auxillia, about the abuse, but
Zimbabwe’s future first lady refused to believe her.
“She told me I smell like urine, and boasted that ‘my
husband has classy bitches, not you’.”
Mutami also claimed she was punched in the face by Mrs
Mnangagwa.
Mutami left for Australia in 2007 after her mother moved
there to work as a nurse. Zimlive
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