Mugabe bodyguards soon to hear about possible assault charges
Two bodyguards protecting the daughter of Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe while she studies in Hong Kong are expected to find out within weeks whether they will be prosecuted over an alleged assault on two newspaper photographers.
The Zimbabwean man and woman allegedly assaulted Colin Galloway and Tim O'Rourke on February 13 outside a house in Tai Po where Bona Mugabe, 20, is living while on a university course.
A police source told the Sunday Morning Post the pair were employed by the Zimbabwean government as bodyguards to look after Ms Mugabe during her stay in the city, but were not entitled to diplomatic immunity as they were not consular officials. Officers had cautioned the pair after the alleged assault and told them to contact police if they had any plans to leave Hong Kong.
'Bona Mugabe will be leaving Hong Kong for her summer holidays soon with the two bodyguards, so we believe a Department of Justice decision on whether to charge them with assault must be made soon,' the source said.
Briton Galloway, 46, and American O'Rourke, 45, were on assignment for a newspaper investigating the Mugabe family's links in East Asia when they were allegedly attacked outside the house in the private JC Castle development.
The three-storey home was reportedly bought in June last year by a middleman acting on behalf of the 85-year-old Zimbabwean leader and his wife Grace, according to the Sunday Times newspaper in London.
Mr Mugabe denied he had bought the house, saying instead he had rented it for his daughter Bona to live in with two friends while she studied in Hong Kong. She is believed to be a student at City University.
Police questioned a Zimbabwean man and woman about the incident, which they termed a common assault, in which O'Rourke claimed he was grabbed by the neck and Galloway said he was grabbed and bruised by a man in his 30s.
A police spokesman said the case had been referred to the Department of Justice for advice, and a file on the incident is understood to have been sent to the department in early March.
A Department of Justice spokeswoman said on Friday evening that the case was under consideration. 'We are now in the process of finalising our legal advice and we expect shortly to be in a position to advise the police of our decision,' she said.
The lawyer representing the two alleged victims has complained about a police failure to formally arrest the alleged assailants, who are understood to have complained to police that the photographers were trespassing on private property.
An audio recording taken by Galloway at the time of the alleged assaults and containing what their lawyer says are threats to the two men has been submitted to police.
The February 13 incident came just weeks after Grace Mugabe was accused of assaulting another photographer, Briton Richard Jones, as he photographed her shopping in Tsim Sha Tsui on January 15. The department said Mrs Mugabe, 43, was entitled to diplomatic immunity because she was the president's wife.
