Mugabe foe detained twice

Zimbabwean authorities on Thursday twice detained opposition presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai and said a top official from his party would be charged with treason.

Tsvangirai was released after two hours of detention in the town of Kwekwe but hours later was taken to a police station in Gweru, officials with his Movement for Democratic Change said. He was held late into the night and then released again.

Tendai Biti, the party’s secretary-general, faces charges related to his alleged publication of a document around the time of the March 29 elections discussing transition of power from the ruling ZANU-PF party to the MDC, police said.

The MDC claims Tsvangirai won that balloting and should have become president. However, the government’s election commission ruled that no one won outright, and it ordered that a second round of voting be held June 27 between the opposition leader and longtime President Robert Mugabe.

Biti had been under pressure from police since holding a news conference March 30 to say his party’s figures showed it had won the presidency. He left Zimbabwe two weeks later but returned Thursday and was arrested at the airport in Harare, the capital.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told the Associated Press that Biti would be charged with treason, which could carry the death penalty. Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri is one of a small group of hard-line security ministers backing Mugabe.

Chihuri said before the election that the police force would never allow opposition “puppets” to take power.

Tsvangirai has repeatedly been harassed and detained since he returned about two weeks ago from a trip out of the country to seek the help of African leaders. Opposition rallies have been canceled, and MDC activists have been arrested and beaten for attempting to put up election posters.

More than 60 opposition activists have been killed, according to the party’s figures, and thousands of supporters and activists beaten. Diplomats investigating the violence also have been detained.

The rights group Human Rights Watch said Monday that the level of election violence was unprecedented in Zimbabwe. It said the June 27 vote could not be free and fair if attacks continued at this level.

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robyn.dixon@latimes.com