Tsvangirai ally released from prison

HARARE, Zimbabwe, March 13 (UPI) -- The new deputy agriculture minister of Zimbabwe was freed Thursday after a long legal battle to win him bail.

A Supreme Court judge ordered an end to Roy Bennett's imprisonment Wednesday, Allafrica.com reported. Bennett, treasurer of the Movement for Democratic Change, was arrested Feb. 13 when he returned to Zimbabwe after receiving his government appointment.

The MDC in a statement called the charges against him -- which included banditry, insurgency and terrorism -- "trumped up." The group, led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, said thousands of people waited outside the prison to greet Bennett, singing and dancing.

Bennett was imprisoned for eight months in 2004 after getting involved in a fight in Parliament with two cabinet ministers from Zanu-PF, the party headed by President Robert Mugabe.

Bennett, when he was released, said some prisoners in the jail look worse than inmates of Nazi concentration camps, The Times of London reported. He said he shared a small cell with 12 other men.

"It breaks my heart when I think of them," he said.