A son of the late Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe appeared in a court in Harare on Thursday, accused of assaulting an anti-corruption agency official during an operation linked to the alleged smuggling of two luxury vehicles into the country. Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe arrived at the Harare Magistrates Court with four other men who were arrested with him at a lodge.
Police spokesperson Paul Nyathi said Bellarmine, 29, and the four others were arrested Tuesday and face assault charges. An anti-corruption commission spokesperson told state media Wednesday that officers had gone to the lodge to seize a Lamborghini and a Mercedes-Benz when one of the officials was assaulted. The spokesperson said the vehicles were in the country illegally.
Neither vehicle has been linked to Bellarmine, who is Mugabe’s youngest child with his second wife, Grace.
The arrest is the latest in a series of legal troubles involving members of the former president’s family in Zimbabwe and neighbouring South Africa. Bellarmine appeared in a Harare court in October on drug possession charges, but prosecutors withdrew them after his co-accused accepted responsibility for possessing cannabis.