President Robert Mugabe has said detained opposition leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai as deserved to be jailed for calling mass protests intended to oust the president.
State media reported today that Mr Mugabe told a rally of his ruling ZANU-PF party Mr Tsvangirai had been ill-advised in organising opposition.
"Tsvangirai is a really hopeless and pathetic puppet," he said in the Shona language, in remarks carried by Zimbabwean state television.
Mr Tsvangirai, who heads the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was arrested on June 6th and charged with treason - for a second time - after the MDC organised a week of protests as a "final push" against Mugabe.
"They said by (June 6th) the MDC would be in power, and Mr Tsvangirai would be at State House. I am glad he is at state house (prison) now. That's the State House he wanted," Mr Mugabe said.
The protests - described by Mr Mugabe as an attempt to spark a coup d'etat - faltered in the face of a tough response by police, who dispersed protesters with tear gas, water cannon and rifle butts. The MDC said hundreds of people were arrested.
Mr Mugabe, who has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980, vowed Mr Tsvangirai and the MDC would be taught "a lesson they will never forget".
A court ordered Mr Tsvangirai to be held in jail until July 10, unless granted bail by the high court. A judge is to rule on a bail application next week.
He has been charged with two counts of treason and the state opposes bail, saying he might commit a "similar offence" if freed.