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Harare - Zimbabwe says it is preparing legal proceedings
against the European Union over the imposition of smart sanctions against
President Robert Mugabe and his senior party officials, a state owned newspaper
reported Sunday.
The Sunday Mail said Johannes Tomana, Zimbabwe's chief
lawyer had "assembled a team of the country's best legal minds to file
papers against the (EU) bloc."
"Of course, we are going to sue. We wrote to them and
we want them to justify the continued imposition of illegal sanctions on
us," Tomana is quoted by the weekly.
Early September, Tomana gave a two-week ultimatum to
Brussels to explain why it had imposed travel restrictions on Mugabe and some
senior Zanu PF officials or face a lawsuit at the General Court of the European
Court of Justice.
During his visit to Zimbabwe in September, the EU's chief
diplomat for Africa Nicholas Westcott told journalists in Zimbabwe that the
European bloc was ready for the legal battle with Harare.
The EU imposed smart sanctions on Mugabe and his loyalists
in 2002 following reports of elections rigging and human rights abuses by Zanu
PF.
There are 163 Zimbabweans on the EU sanctions list. Mugabe has argued that the travel restrictions and sanctions were harming Zimbabwe's economy.
