Murder-case Minister asks for new judge

Press, 24 September 1980, Page 9

Murder-case Minister asks for new judge

NZPA-Reuter Salisbury The Zimbabwe Manpower Minister, Edgar Tekere, who has been charged with mudering a white farmer, has served notice through his . lawyers that he will ask for the removal of the white judge hearing his case. His lawyers, speaking on his behalf, told a press conference J. that they would 'apply for Judge John Pitman to be replaced by a foreign judge because, they said, Zimbabwe’s Judiciary was still a'remnant of the old white-supremacist Rhodesian regime, , _ The' two lawyers, lan Baker,, a Briton, and John ’ Jdcksoh, a South African, also produced what they said was a letter from the

previously unheard of Zimbabwe Resistance Movement, threatening to kill the Minister and calling him a murderer.

The trial of Tekere and seven of his bodyguards had been due to start on Monday, but, in the High Court, his lawyers were granted a postponement until November 3 after they said that their British counsel would not be available until November 1. The defence lawyers also told Judge Pitman they would request his withdrawal from the case. The Judge told them to give written reasons for the demand by October 20. Tekere, accused of murdering; a farm manager, Ger-

aid Adams, aged 68, last August 4, drove from the High Court in a white Mercedes saloon after the brief hearing to give his press conference.

Mr Jackson attacked: foreign press reporting of Tekere’s case, terming it scurrilous and saying the press had convicted the Minister before he had been tried.