Phillip Machemedze, the former Central Intelligence Organisation operative who was granted asylum in the United Kingdom, allegedly fled Zimbabwe in 2000 without resigning after “selling out” to the MDC, well-placed sources told NewsDay.
Machemedze reportedly left the country hurriedly as he felt his life was in danger.
His lawyer, Masimba Mavaza of IEI Solicitors in the UK, who is a former prosecutor at the Harare Magistrates’ Court and lecturer at the Police Staff College, confirmed that his client had left the country under a cloud but refused to give reasons.
“Unfortunately, he can’t discuss the reasons he left the country because he is still bound by the Official Secrets Act,” he said.
Sources, however, said Machemedze had revealed in court that he was suspected of having leaked information to the MDC, hence his decision to flee.
Reports from the UK say Machemedze confessed to torturing and killing MDC activists, but Mavaza disputed this.
He, however, said his client had information about people being murdered and had witnessed people being tortured.
Machemedze joined the CIO in 1996 and was at one time the bodyguard of the late Enos Chikowore, a former Cabinet minister.
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International Criminal Court prosecutors are said to be keen to interview him to establish if they can build a case against President Robert Mugabe at The Hague.
Chivaza, however, maintains his client is not prepared to testify against the President or any government official, saying he was only interested in his “protection and treatment”.
Machemedze’s application for asylum was initially turned down by the UK Home Office which said he had “committed crimes against humanity”.
But Justice David Archer of the First Tier Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber allowed Chivaza and his wife’s appeals, in a judgment delivered on May 4, 2011.
Despite finding that he was “deeply involved in savage acts of extreme violence”, the judge said deporting him to Zimbabwe would breach his rights under Articles 2 and 3 of the European Human Rights Convention.
