ACR Financial Controller Ian Harris, who was facing charges of fraudulently acquiring diamond claims at Zimbabwes controversial Chiadzwa fields in the name of non-existent ACR subsidiaries, was released on bail by a Harare magistrate.
Harris was arrested on May 7 on fraud allegations.
Allegations against Harris are that he approached Mutare mines offices between April and July 2006 seeking diamond claims and got 240 claims. The state is however alleging that the three companies he claimed to be representing then had not yet been registered.
An ACR spokesperson said last week that the company believed that the charges against Harris have no legal basis. ACR believes these charges have been provoked by elements who have an interest in the illegal mining currently being carried on at the company’s Marange diamond claims in defiance of a Supreme Court order, in an attempt to intimidate its staff, discourage the company in pursuing all necessary legal actions to secure repossession of its diamond claims at Marange and discredit the company, the spokesperson said.
ACR, which holds right of title to claims on the Marange diamond field that is also known as Chiadzwa in Zimbabwe’s eastern districts, is locked in an ownership wrangle of the diamond field with the government-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development (ZMDC). Mpofu last March declared that the London-based mining firm controlled by one white man would never mine diamonds at Marange as long as he was in charge of the ministry.
Mpofu accuses ACR chief executive Andrew Cranswick of leading a campaign to block Zimbabwes bid to officially sell diamonds from Chiadzwa. Chiadzwa is one of the worlds most controversial diamond fields with reports that soldiers sent to guard the claims after the government took over the field in October 2006 from ACR committed gross human rights abuses against illegal miners who had descended on the field.
International rights groups have been pushing for a ban on Zimbabwean diamonds but in November, the country escaped a Kimberley Process ban with the global body giving Harare a June 2010 deadline to make reforms to comply with its regulations.
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