The man behind the plot to bomb a dairy business owned by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, 91, will be sentenced on Tuesday.
State media in the country said Zimbabwe People’s Front political party leader Owen Kuchata (34), who tried to petrol-bomb the First Family’s Alpha Omega Dairy farm in Mazowe, will be sentenced on Tuesday “after he dramatically changed his plea of not guilty to guilty”.
The state owned Herald reported that on Friday last week, Kuchata was brought before regional magistrate Hoseah Mujaya for plea recording and pleaded guilty to wanting to petrol bomb the First Family’s dairy.
Police, acting on a tip off, arrested four people before they could carry out the planned bombing last month. Kuchata said it was his idea to commit the offence.
Kuchata later took exception to the charge of terrorism and changed his plea to not guilty after arguing that Alpha Omega Dairy was not a Government property, but President Mugabe’s private property.
Prosecutor Michael Reza maintained that terrorism charges were appropriate, saying the attack was not targeted at the dairy as an outfit, but at the office of the Presidency of Zimbabwe.
The botched bombing case has seen the arrest of Zimmbabwe’s prosecutor-general, Johannes Tomana, after he reportedly failed to prosecute two men over an alleged plot to bomb the dairy.
Tomana has appeared in court over his decision to drop charges against two of the four men arrested over the plot to bomb one ofZimbabwe’s largest dairies, which is run by first lady Grace Mugabe. Tomana is out on bail.
