Biti sentenced for poll ‘win’

A Zimbabwe court on Monday convicted leading opposition figure Tendai Biti of an election crime and fined him for announcing his own results for presidential polls in July 2018, which he claimed his party won.

Biti, a respected former finance minister, proclaimed his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) the victor of the contested July 30 poll which sparked antigovernment protests which troops put down.

Six people were killed in the violence.

Magistrate Gloria Takundwa ordered Biti to pay $200 (R2,822) – the price of a tank of petrol – or go to prison for a week. He was also handed a jail term of six months, suspended for five years.

Zanu-PF leader Emmerson Mnangagwa was later declared the winner.