A Zimbabwe court today struggled to hear a bad quality videotape allegedly showing that opposition leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai committed high treason by plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe.
Mr Tsvangirai and two senior Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials on trial in Harare's High Court are accused of discussing the elimination of Mr Mugabe with political consultant Mr Ari Ben Menashe.
Mr Tsvangirai, MDC secretary general Mr Welshman Ncube and shadow agriculture minister Mr Renson Gasela, who deny the charges, could face the death penalty if convicted.
Mr Ben Menashe, the key witness and a former Israeli intelligence agent, told the court that Mr Tsvangirai had clearly asked him to help kill Mr Mugabe ahead of presidential elections last year.
But in the videotape shown by prosecutors on the second day of the trial, Mr Tsvangirai was heard to say: "The discussion was never about the elimination of Mugabe, it was about the election, and the post-election outcome."
Mr Ben Menashe, the head of Canadian-based political consultancy firm Dickens and Madson was made to repeat Mr Tsvangirai's statement by his lawyer and the judge.
Mr Tsvangirai's lawyer, renowned South African attorney, Mr George Bizos, asked the judge to take note of the statement, as it is "the one intelligible bit of the tape."
The high-profile trial began yesterday amid scenes of tension as riot police tried to bar journalists, diplomats and opposition supporters from entering the court.
AFP