ZIMBABWE: Zimbabwean police detained main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday but freed him soon afterwards, saying allegations he ordered the assault of a ruling party supporter were unfounded, his spokesman said.
Police in the central city of Kadoma summoned the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader for questioning after a supporter of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party said he had ordered opposition supporters to beat him up, Tsvangirai's spokesman, Mr William Bango said.
"The man, however, later changed his statement and Mr Tsvangirai has now been released without charge," he said by telephone from Kadoma, where the MDC will fight the ruling party in a weekend parliamentary by-election.
Mr Tsvangirai, who is legally challenging Mr Mugabe's re-election in a 2002 poll - condemned as flawed by both the MDC and several Western countries - faces two separate treason charges of seeking to forcibly oust Mr Mugabe and of plotting his assassination. Mugabe dismisses the MDC as a puppet of former colonial power Britain and other critics of his government's policies.