"Trumped-up" charge in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwian justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa, in an attempt to scupper the prosecution of a colleague, Didymus Mutasa, security and lands minister who was charged with "inciting public violence" after gangs attacked his political rivals, allegedly offered a witness a farm siezed from a white owner.

Chinamasa is a loyal member of President Robert Mugabe's cabinet and author of a raft of repressive laws and protests his innocence of the "trumped-up" charge.

In 2002, he was convicted for contempt of court and sentenced to three months in prison.

He never went to jail and the judge was arrested and held for three days.