HARARE – Zimbabwe’s MDC party said on Wednesday it had instructed its lawyers to urgently appeal to the High Court against suspension of two of its legislators from Parliament after they were convicted on what the party claims are trumped up charges.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s party spoke a day after another of its parliamentary representatives was found guilty of abusing subsidised inputs from a government farm support programme and sentenced to two years in jail.

Ernest Mudavanhu, who is Member of Parliament (MP) for Zaka North constituency, is also likely to be suspended from the House.

MDC chief whip and secretary for legal affairs Innocent Gonese said: “We understand another suspension is on the way for another MP but we are also going to go to the High Court as their rights are being violated.”

Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma last week issued letters of suspension to MDC legislators Shuah Mudiwa and Mathias Mlambo after they were sentenced on separate occasions to jail terms of more than six months by courts in Manicaland province.

An MP automatically loses their seat once they are sentenced to a jail term of six months or more.

But the two MDC MPs, who were facing different charges and were tried by separate courts, have appealed against their convictions and sentences which according to the MDC means they should continue as legislators until the appeals are decided.

A total of five MDC legislators have been convicted of various crimes while several others continue to face charges, in what the party says is a well orchestrated plan by elements in President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party to cancel the former opposition’s slim parliamentary majority.

Meanwhile a Harare magistrate postponed to next month ruling in a case in which MDC director-general Toendepi Shonhe is accused of perjury.

Shonhe -- who denies the charge of perjury -- is accused of lying under oath that state security agents last month abducted three MDC activists from their homes in Mashonaland West province.

The state insists that three were never abducted but were instead lawfully taken from their homes by state agents and brought to Harare where they were wanted in connection with a case that they are involved in.

By Zimonline