Hong Kong - If Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's daughter Bona harboured hopes of keeping a low profile while she completes her university course in Hong Kong, they were dealt a painful blow this week.
The 20-year-old has found herself at the centre of a ferocious row over press freedom after two bodyguards protecting her were spared prosecution for grappling with two photographers outside the luxury home her father provided for her during her studies.
Photographers Colin Galloway and Tim O'Rourke arrived February 13 at the luxury 5-million-US-dollar house in a quiet suburb reportedly bought by Robert Mugabe in 2008. They got as far as the street outside when the bodyguards confronted them and allegedly tried to grab a camera.
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The journalists, working on a story for the Sunday Times in London about the Mugabe family's links to Hong Kong, claimed Briton Galloway was gripped by the throat and lifted off his feet by a male bodyguard while American O'Rourke was assaulted by the other bodyguard, a woman.
'I think this is a political decision' Police were called and Galloway even managed to present a tape recording of his conversation with the bodyguards immediately after the assault in which the female bodyguard appeared to admit assaulting the pair "because you were taking photographs".
This week, however, after studying the case for three months, Hong Kong's Department of Justice announced it decided not to prosecute the man, named Mapfumo Marks, and the woman, named Manyaira Reliance Pepukai, both from Zimbabwe.
It took the decision, a department spokesperson said, because it decided the two bodyguards acted as they did because they were "genuinely concerned" for the safety of Bona Mugabe, who they said was about to leave the house to go to university with her security personnel.
The decision has triggered outrage, particularly as Bona's mother, Grace Mugabe, the president's wife, was herself involved in an incident weeks earlier when she allegedly beat up another photographer, Richard Jones, for taking pictures of her shopping in Hong Kong.
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