Zimbabwe has jailed three men, including senior officials from President Robert Mugabe?s ruling party for selling state secrets to foreign agents, the official Herald newspaper reported yesterday. The paper said Zimbabwe?s ambassador-designate to Mozambique, Godfrey Dzvairo, was sentenced to an effective six years in prison while Itai Marchi, the ruling ZANU-PF party?s director for external affairs and former banker Tendai Matambanadzo each got five years.

The Herald cited Attorney-General Sobuza Gula-Ndebele, who was not immediately available for comment yesterday. The case, whose court proceedings have been closed to the public and media, has dragged in two other senior ZANU-PF officials including prominent businessman Phillip Chiyangwa, who is due to make a routine court appearance on Friday while awaiting trial. Defence lawyers have been barred from discussing the case with the media. Last month regional security sources said Zimbabwe had also arrested a senior South African intelligence agent in December over the matter, but South African government officials declined to comment. The sources said the agent, a middle-aged white man, was arrested in the Zimbabwean resort of Victoria Falls where he was due to meet a senior ZANU-PF security official.

The spy case coincided with a crackdown within the ruling party which saw the suspension of seven senior party officials on charges that they convened a secret meeting to promote Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwe to the post of party and government vice president. The job, seen as a stepping stone to the presidency if, as expected, Mugabe retires when his present term of office ends in 2008, eventually went to Joyce Mujuru.