Harare - Zimbabwe said on Monday it had hanged four convicted murderers, prompting an opposition party to allege that the executions may have been designed to intimidate its jailed leader who faces treason charges.
The government said the opposition was trying to exploit Friday's executions at Harare Central Prison for propaganda purposes. The prison is a few hundred metres from the Harare Remand Prison where Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai is being held.
Tsvangirai faces a possible death sentence in a treason trial for an alleged plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe in 2002. He was arrested on June 6 on separate charges of trying to overthrow Mugabe through street protests.
The MDC condemned the executions.
"It is reasonable to assume this was a deliberate show of brute force designed to intimidate Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC," MDC legal secretary David Coltart told reporters.
The government dismissed the allegations.
"These people are desperate and that desperation is reflecting itself very strongly through their media management. They are trying to use everything happening here for propaganda purposes," a government spokesperson told Reuters.
A lower court has ordered that Tsvangirai be held until July 10 unless he is granted bail by the High Court. Tsvangirai, who has emerged as the biggest challenge to Mugabe's 23-year-old hold on power, says he is a victim of political harassment.
Justice ministry officials said two of the four executed convicts had been sentenced to death six years ago.
More than 70 people have been executed since Mugabe came to power when the country was granted independence from Britain in 1980.
Zimbabwe retains the death penalty for murder and treason, although in the mid 1990s the government said it was ready to review the law.