JOHANNESBURG A Zimbabwean magistrate has acquitted British property tycoon Nicholas Van Hoogstraten on charges of violating the countrys foreign exchange laws and possession of pornography.Van Hoogstraten who is said to own over 200 residential and business properties and an estimated 600 000 hectares of land in Zimbabwe, was arrested by police in January 2008 for allegedly charging rent for his properties in Zimbabwe in foreign currency, then an offence under the countrys tough foreign exchange regulations.
When police raided his home in the upmarket suburb of Emerald Hill in Harare, they found hundreds of photographs of naked women in what they said were “indecent poses”. The 64-year-old Van Hoogstraten appeared in many of the pictures.
Zimbabwean police said Van Hoogstraten had been caught in possession of US$37 586, R92 880, 190 as well as Z$20 billion. Upon his arrest the property tycoon dismissed the charges against him as false and malicious, adding that he was confident the courts would clear him of any wrongdoing.
The controversial businessman, who is believed to have close ties with President Robert Mugabes government, also denied that he had fallen out with the Harare authorities. He was held in custody for five nights but released on bail and appeared in court for trial last week.
Acquitting Van Hoogstraten, magistrate Morgen Nemadire said police had bungled the pornography case by seizing the pictures without a search warrant. “They were illegally obtained, which rendered the pictures inadmissible in court,” said Nemadire, ordering that the photographs be destroyed.
On the illegal currency dealing charge the magistrate said police had failed to produce the officer who had allegedly caught him. Van Hoogstraten, who has changed his name by deed poll to Adolph von Hessen, has been a generous contributor to Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) party and has bought into several large state-owned companies.
In Britain he was sentenced to 10 years in jail for ordering the killing in 2002 of a business rival, Mohammed Raja, but was later released when his sentence was overturned on appeal. He was ordered to pay 6 million in compensation to the family of the dead man but said that they would “never get a penny”.
In 1990 he fought a lengthy battle with the local ramblers’ association to stop them walking across his now-abandoned estate in Sussex and blocked the paths with razor wire and discarded refrigerators.
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