A white farmer convicted of murder for running over...

A white farmer convicted of murder for running over a black settler occupying part of his land was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The farmer, Philip Bezuidenhout, was the second person convicted of murder in more than two years of political violence that has left about 200 people dead. Most of the violence has been blamed on the black squatters and the ruling party.
Bezuidenhout, 52, pleaded innocent to murdering Fabian Mapenzauswa, saying he accidentally ran over the man with his truck in July 2001 in the eastern district of Odzi, 150 miles east of Harare.
Mapenzauswa was one of thousands of blacks who occupied white-owned farm land over the last two years, demanding the government seize the land and marking out plots for themselves.
High Court Judge Ben Hlatshwayo said he did not impose the death penalty because Bezuidenhout was affected by "agitation and anguish" when he drove his truck at the settler after the government seized his farm under its land redistribution program.
"This court is not bound to impose a death sentence and in the circumstances considers it inappropriate to do so," Hlatshwayo said. "(Bezuidenhout) must consider himself very lucky."
Zimbabwe has been wracked by more than two years of political and economic turmoil, marked by a violent crackdown against the opposition and government efforts to seize 5,000 white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks.
The only other person convicted of murder was a black militant sentenced to death for killing a policeman sent to investigate violence on a white-owned farm in early 2000. The sentence is under appeal.