A court handed a suspended sentence Thursday to the first white farmer convicted of defying an order to vacate his property under Zimbabwe's campaign to put more land in black hands.
A Harare magistrate gave Deon Theron, a vice president of the white-dominated Commercial Farmers Union, one month to leave his farm and a six-month prison sentence, suspended for five years on condition he does not violate the Land Act. Mr. Theron's lawyer said he would appeal the conviction and sentence.
The 53-year-old dairy farmer was convicted Tuesday of unlawfully remaining on his farm after it was declared state land. The prosecutor had called for his imprisonment. The prosecutor, who refused to give his name to reporters but was addressed by the magistrate as Mr. Zvakare, urged a quick sentencing and said it was "a serious criminal case."
Observers inside and outside Zimbabwe -- once a British colony -- blame the meltdown of the country's agriculture-based economy on the often violent seizures of white-owned commercial farms that began on President Robert Mugabe's orders in 2000.