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Three people have appeared in court in Zimbabwe, accused of stealing a suitcase containing $150,000 (\u00a3117,600) of cash from the country’s ex-president, Robert Mugabe.<\/p>\n
The suspected thieves allegedly spent the money on cars, homes and animals.<\/p>\n
A relative of the ex-president,\u00a0Constantia Mugabe, is among the accused, government-owned media report.<\/p>\n
She allegedly had keys to Mr Mugabe’s rural home in Zvimba, near the capital Harare, and gave the others access.<\/p>\n
The other suspects were employed as cleaners at the time of the theft, which allegedly happened some time between 1 December and early January.<\/p>\n
“Johanne Mapurisa bought a Toyota Camry… and a house for $20,000 after the incident,” state prosecutor Teveraishe Zinyemba told Chinhoyi magistrates court.<\/p>\n
“Saymore Nhetekwa also bought a Honda… and livestock which included pigs and cattle for an undisclosed amount.”<\/p>\n
Mr Mugabe, now 94, was forced out of office by Zimbabwe’s military in 2017.<\/p>\n
Up to that point, he had been in power for 37 years, first as prime minister and later as president.<\/p>\n
Once famously claiming that a country could never go bankrupt, he was accused of enjoying a lavish lifestyle while presiding over Zimbabwe’s economic collapse.<\/p>\n
US dollars are highly prized in Zimbabwe. In theory, the local “bond notes” that banks dispense are equal to the US currency – but in reality they buy much less.<\/p>\n
Since retiring,\u00a0Mr Mugabe has had difficulty walking\u00a0and has spent several months in Singapore for medical treatment.<\/p>\n
It is unclear if he was at home while the theft took place.<\/p>\n
The three suspects have been released on bail. The AFP news agency reports that a fourth is still at large.<\/p>\n
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Source:\u00a0BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three people have appeared in court in Zimbabwe, accused of stealing a suitcase containing $150,000 (\u00a3117,600) of cash from the country’s ex-president, Robert Mugabe. The suspected thieves allegedly spent the money on cars, homes and animals. A relative of the ex-president,\u00a0Constantia Mugabe, is among the accused, government-owned media report. She allegedly had keys to Mr […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n