Zim farmer claims self defence News24 (SA) Date posted:Thu 27-May-2004 Date published:Thu 27-May-2004
Back to previous page		"He is facing two charges - one of murder and another of attempted murder" Harare - A white Zimbabwean farmer has been arrested and charged with murder after he shot dead a settler on his farm in the east of the country, a police spokesperson said on Wednesday. However his lawyer has claimed the fatal shooting was an act of self defence following an attack by a group of hostile settlers. Police spokesperson Andrew Phiri said Spiro Landos had been arrested and was under police guard at a clinic in eastern Zimbabwe, after settlers on his Riverside Farm "meted out instant justice" against the farmer after he shot one settler and wounded another. "Mr Landos has been arrested" said Phiri. "He is facing two charges - one of murder and another of attempted murder." However, the farmer's lawyer said that Landos had fired only one shot, and that he did it in self defence after he was attacked by a mob of axe and stick-wielding settlers on his farm. "It seems a clear case of self-defence against an attack on him by people who were armed" said the lawyer, who asked not to be named. He said his client had suffered serious injuries as a result of the attack, including two fractured forearms, a stab wound in the back and deep gashes all over his body. The incident comes at a time of rising racial tensions in the country following last week's high-profile brawl between prominent white opposition lawmaker, Roy Bennett, and two cabinet members during a heated parliamentary debate. In 2000, black settlers in Zimbabwe began forcibly occupying white-owned land in a move supported by the government, which then embarked on a controversial reform programme to acquire millions of hectares of land from whites and redistribute it to blacks. A small group of about 4 500 white farmers owned 30% of prime farmland before the government launched the programme but now fewer than 400 white farmers remain in Zimbabwe and own just three percent of the country's land.