Zimbabwe court cleared before 'coup' case hearing

HARARE, June 22 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's High Court ruled today that hearings in the case of five men accused of plotting to topple President Robert Mugabe would be closed to the public and media.

The five, who deny the charges, were arrested in Harare in May and charged with treason.

At the start of the men's bail applications today, Judge Tedius Karwi ordered the media and members of the public be barred from the court after prosecutors argued the case dealt with ''sensitive matters''.

''I am of the opinion that the state is right, this is a sensitive matter and in the interest of the state and the generality of the public and because investigations are still underway, I therefore order that the court be cleared,'' Karwi said.

Defence lawyer Jonathan Samkange argued open proceedings were in the public interest.

''It is not in the national interest or public interest that the public ought not to know what is happening...in a democratic state it's the right of all stakeholders, the accused, their families and the press to know what is happening here,'' Samkange said.

Critics say Mugabe has tended to use coup and terrorism charges against opponents to divert attention from an economic meltdown that has pushed the inflation rate -- already the highest in the world -- above 3,700 per cent.

Prosecutors say the accused wanted to use soldiers to take over the government and military bases, after which they would have replace Mugabe with Rural Housing and Social Amenities Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Mnangagwa was not among those arrested and told a local independent newspaper that any suggestion he was linked to a coup plot was ''stupid''.

In March, Mugabe said some senior officials in his ZANU-PF party were plotting his ouster with the help of Western powers critical of his rule.

Mnangagwa, an ally of Mugabe since the 1970s liberation war, heads one of the two main ZANU-PF factions while the other backs Vice President Joyce Mujuru.

REUTERS SKB KP1654