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**Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has halted a cabinet meeting and cancelled appointments in protest at the jailing of one of his aides.**Mr Tsvangirai is also boycotting his office over Roy Bennett’s imprisonment.
Mr Bennett faces trial over an alleged plot to kill President Robert Mugabe - charges that Mr Tsvangirai’s MDC says are politically motivated and untrue.
Analysts say the issue threatens to split the government Mr Tsvangirai formed with Mr Mugabe in February.
Mr Tsvangirai’s spokesman, James Maridadi, said the prime minister had tried to contact Mr Mugabe to discuss the issue, but had failed.
ROY BENNETT
- Former coffee farmer
- 2000: Elected MP
- 2004: Jailed after pushing minister in parliament
- **2006: **Accused of plot to kill President Mugabe
- 2006: Fled to South Africa
- 2009: Nominated as deputy agriculture minister; arrested
Profile: Zimbabwe’s political farmer
“The Council of Ministers [cabinet meeting] has been cancelled,” he told South Africa-based ZimOnline news website.
“The prime minister has suspended his coming to the office until the issue of Senator Bennett is resolved.”
Mr Bennett, who is Mr Tsvangirai’s nominee for deputy agriculture minister, is due to stand trial on 19 October on charges of terrorism, insurgency, sabotage and banditry. If convicted he faces a life jail term.
He was initially arrested and jailed in February, on the day ministers in the coalition government were sworn in.
He was released in March but judges revoked his bail on Wednesday.
Mr Bennett, a white farmer whose land was seized under Mr Mugabe’s land reform programme, fled to South Africa in 2006 saying he feared for his life, before returning to serve in the government.