Thursday, July 8, 2010

Zimbabwe: Diplomat Recalled Over Alleged Iran Sex scandal

Zimbabwe was forced to re-call a senior diplomat based in Tehran after he was drugged by two Iranian women he picked up from the streets.

But Mr Brighton Mugarisanwa, a counsel at the Zimbabwean embassy in Tehran has successfully challenged the re-deployment to Harare after a labour court ruled that he had not been given a fair hearing.
According to the official Herald newspaper, the diplomat was asked to return home in March after the case created a media frenzy in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Zimbabwean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which employees Mr Mugarisanwa said the case which happened in January had embarrassed the government.

He allegedly invited the two women – one of them married - to his apartment in Tehran at night.

One of the women allegedly drugged him before stealing his property including his office keys as he lay unconscious.

In the letter informing him about the redeployment, the government said Mr Mugarisanwa "was failing to cope with the social living conditions in Iran as he was previously counselled on acts if indiscretion involving relations with women," the Herald reported on Wednesday.

He reportedly submitted a report that one of the two women who drugged him was married.

It is a punishable offence in Iran for a married woman to be alone with a man who is not her husband.

The diplomat argued that the redeployment would see his salary being slashed from US$5000 to US$126 a month.

The court ruled that he had been recalled on the basis of reports by the media and that of Zimbabwe's ambassador to Iran Mr Nicholas Kitikiti as well as his own report but no proper disciplinary action had been instituted until he returned to Harare.

The judge said the diplomat had a right to be heard before he could be recalled and that there was no guarantee that he would be found guilty.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts with Thumbnails