Helicopter Pilot Arrested in Zim

[kennyd]

Any news on pilot Brent Smyth who was arrested in Zim?

Hope the SA authorities can put some pressure on to get him released ASAP.

[Solid Rust Twotter]

Highly unlikely the SA regime will do anything to help someone who is working for the Zim opposition against their number one crony Mad Bob.:hmm::rolleyes:

[JetPark]

One wonders when the world will wake up to what is going on in that country? Thier Dictator is so desperate to stay in power that people who no longer walk this earth are on the electoral role - the mind boggles. Let's hope that this story turns out well for the Pilot.

[I.R.PIRATE]

He will prob be sent home after the weekend - when there is no longer any need to keep Tsvangirai grounded......:hmm::hmm:

[Insane]

Guys, how wise was it for a guy with a Brit passport to go to Zim to fly the opposition leader around....considering that the leader of that country has been accusing the brits of supporting and funding the oposition????

No the wisest move by the operator:ugh:

[putt for dough]

Zim charges pilot with fraud
26/03/2008 16:08 - (SA)

Johannesburg - Zimbabwe police have pressed fraud charges related to a hotel booking against the Johannesburg pilot arrested while flying Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai to election rallies, the party said on Wednesday.

Zimbabwe's police were not able to confirm his arrest or provide reasons, but MDC treasurer general Roy Bennett said that according to the party's lawyers in Harare, when he arrived at the hotel, he occupied the room that somebody else had booked for him and so the police charged him with fraud.

"They charged him under ridiculous charges, and are holding him, because somebody else booked him into the hotel under another name because he was not there," said Bennett.

Brent Smyth was detained on Tuesday with MDC official Jameson Timba, another pilot helping him refuel and an airport employee. They were waiting to fly Tsvangirai to rallies in remote areas to lobby voters for his presidential bid ahead of Saturday's election.

Smyth had had a run-in with authorities on Saturday. They said his flight plan had not been filed on time, cancelling Tsvangirai's rally appearances in key rural areas when his helicopter was grounded, said Bennett.

Timba, the other pilot and the airport employee were released later on Tuesday.

South African embassy officials were granted consular access on Wednesday to Smyth and would attempt to establish the circumstances of his detention.

"We have through our embassy in Harare requested consular access to the pilot, which has now been granted by Zimbabwean authorities," spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said.

Mamoepa said they were in contact with Smyth's employer - ATS aviation services - and would offer full consular assistance to Smyth.

Smyth's fiancee Drieksie Janse van Rensburg said his clearance permit to be in the country expired at midnight on Tuesday while he was in custody.

[fly nice]

WARNING, if there is a crew change for your next Harare nightstop, you could be up for fraud if the hotel booking is not amended through official channels!:ooh:

[I.R.PIRATE]

Shamelessly copied from 'the other' forum,

Now they claiming pilot has MI6 ties...:suspect::suspect:


THE HERALD
Harare

Zimbabweans must remain vigilant to counter British moves to undermine their
independence and sovereignty, President Mugabe has said.
Speaking at a rally held at Chipadze Stadium in Bindura yesterday, the President said the British were sending in clandestine operatives in a bid to compromise the peace and security situation. "Hondo yemaBritish irikuramba iripo. Varikupinza iyezvino vanhu pachivande muno, tochenjera, kurikuuya maforces akawanda. Mamwe epasi-pasi, including SAS, vese ivavo, Special Air Service people. Saka zvemaBritish zvavarikuronga zvakawanda, tochenjera, kuchenjera security yedu. Kuchenjera politics dzedu. Kuti vatinoterera ndavanani?"

The President's comments come in the wake of the arrest of a British pilot contracted to carry campaign material for MDC faction leader Morgan Tsvangirai earlier this week, a development that sources say could provide details of how the MDC election campaign is being funded by foreigners in contravention of the Political Parties Finance Act.

The pilot, who was in possession of British and South African passports bearing different names, was arrested after security details were alerted to the fact that he wanted to fly his helicopter without filing a proper flight plan with the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe. The helicopter is now under police guard at Charles Prince Airport just outside Harare. Commenting on the helicopter in an interview with The Herald and ZBCTV yesterday, Cde Mugabe said though he was still to receive a full report from the police, the development posed serious security concerns.

"It's a serious matter, we don't know what the MDC is up to. They could bring in arms caches or anything, and land you know, in hidden places, these are helicopters by the way. It means we should keep up our vigilance, and remain aware that the enemy has a lot of plans against us."

He said if the MDC genuinely wanted a helicopter to use for their campaigns they could easily have hired one from within Zimbabwe. "It's a situation, naturally, that raises concern. If they wanted a helicopter to use within the country, why didn't they hire? There are small planes here that they could hire without importing a helicopter. We know they have people outside who help them but not all these people are our friends," Cde Mugabe said.

It is believed that the pilot works for the British foreign intelligence service, the MI6, and was hired and paid by foreigners involved in Tsvangirai's election campaign including a former British soldier working in Zimbabwe.

Roy Bennett, the self-exiled treasurer-general in the Tsvangirai faction and now based in South Africa, is also understood to have paid for 2 420 litres of fuel to be used during the operation. The pilot has a South African passport which gives his name as Brendon Douglas Bridge, which he used to try and file a flight plan with CAAZ, while his British passport identifies him as Brenton Bridge Smyth.

On the day he was arrested (March 25 2008), he had been ferried to Charles Prince Airport by Mr Maxwell Daniel, a Scot by birth who served as a member of the British Marines and claims to have been in the Police Constabulary from 1984 to 2000. Daniel's role in the election campaign, coupled with the pilot's suspected MI6 links, is said to have alerted security services to the likely existence of a well co-ordinated British plot to fund the MDC's campaign. Others arrested that day were Jameson Timba, an MDC-Tsvangirai House of Assembly candidate in Mt Pleasant and Garikai Tshuma, a fourth-year University of Zimbabwe student serving as a campaign manager for the former.

"We are still investigating the pilot's British intelligence links and the presence of people such as Daniel, who is a former British marine indicate something more sinister than a mere election campaign.

"Mr Bennett is believed to be co-ordinating the foreign funding operation from South Africa through his links in that country and further abroad.
"These activities are not only in contravention of the Political Parties (Finance) Act which prohibits foreign funding for parties but also substantiate the long-held contention that the opposition is an appendage of foreign interests seeking regime change in Zimbabwe," said the sources.




The sources said the police would probably charge Bridge, alias Smyth, with contravening Section 29 (1)(a) as read with Section 36(1)(a) of the Immigration Act Chapter 4:0 as well as contravening Section 136 of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act Chapter 9:23.


"There still remains the possibility of invoking the Suppression of International Terrorism Act to keep this guy in holding until it can be established that this was not part of a wider espionage conspiracy that has been taking place over an extended period of time.

"His (the pilot's) intentions in Zimbabwe seem thoroughly dishonourable and indicate breaches of our security mechanisms as a nation. Everything is being done to uncover the identities of all those involved and more arrests are likely to follow very soon," the sources said.


Consultations are presently going on with the Attorney-General's Office to ascertain whether these activities by the MDC are not in contravention of the Electoral Act," the sources added.

According to information availed to The Herald, on March 21, Bridge, alias Smyth, filed a flight plan with the Polokwane Airport Authority in South Africa to travel to Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Airport in Bulawayo with CAAZ.

He arrived at Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Airport alone the next day flying a South African registered helicopter (ZS-RML) and was cleared by immigration authorities. Tsvangirai is understood to have met him at the airport in the company of MDC activists and they proceeded to try and file a new flight plan with CAAZ.


The aviation authorities refused to accept it as it did not meet the standard 24-hour clearance requirement and at this stage Tsvangirai pleaded with Mr Godfrey Gondo of the Immigration Department to let the helicopter proceed.
Mr Gondo refused and Bridge alias Smyth then proceeded to change his flight plan so that he could go to Harare. He arrived at Charles Prince Airport on March 24 where he filed another flight plan that would see him fly to Chipinge, Bikita, Buhera, Bulawayo and finally back to Polokwane.
One Erick Richard picked him up at the airport and took him to a city hotel (name provided) where a booking had been made for him by a JT Tiriboyi.

[Wyle E Coyote]

If he had a few of these in his pocket he could have bribed his way out ;)

http://www.freakingnews.com/pictures/11500/Banana-Republic-11946.jpg

Edit:
(If the picture disappears again, find it Here (http://www.freakingnews.com/pictures/11500/Banana-Republic-11946.jpg))