Asylum denied to Zimbabwean opposition official

HARARE, Zimbabwe — A top Zimbabwean opposition official fled to Zambia on Wednesday but was denied asylum and is expected to face arrest at home as concerns rose over a government crackdown after last week’s disputed presidential election.

Tendai Biti, a former finance minister and a leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said he is going to be deported, according to Dewa Mavinga, southern Africa director with Human Rights Watch.

Mavhinga said Biti told him: “It looks like they have made a decision to hand us back to the junta. We are truly in God’s hands.”

Zambia’s foreign minister, Joseph Malanji, said the reasons Biti gave for seeking asylum “did not have merit, so he is being held in safe custody and we are trying to take him back to Zimbabwe.” As legal and rights activists attempted to put together an urgent appeal, they questioned how an asylum case could be processed in mere hours.

Biti’s plight follows scenes of the military opening fire in the streets of Zimbabwe’s capital a week ago, killing six people, and growing opposition claims of harassment. The events have challenged assertions by newly elected President Emmerson Mnangagwa of a “flowering” of democracy after longtime leader Robert Mugabe stepped down in November under military pressure.

The MDC has denounced Mnangagwa’s July 30 election victory as fraudulent and vowed to challenge it in court this week.

Biti, one of the most vocal government critics, had declared before the official election results were announced Friday that opposition leader Nelson Chamisa had won, a claim also made by Chamisa himself.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has said it is illegal to release results before its own official announcement.