HARARE — Zimbabwe's high court on Wednesday referred the case of five of six diamond executives charged with fraud to the Supreme Court while ordering the release of the sixth.

Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe said Lovemore Kurotwi, the head of Canadile Miners, should be released without charge because police failed to bring him to court within four days following his arrest.

The executives from two firms were arrested last week on suspicion of fraudulently obtaining a licence to mine gems in the controversial Marange fields.

The five ordered detained include Dominic Mubaiwa, CEO of the government-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC), which formed a joint venture with South African firm Core Mining Minerals to form Canadile.

The defendants are accused of duping the government into believing that a non-existent South African firm was ready to invest two billion dollars in Zimbabwe in order to obtain a licence for Canadile Miners.

Zimbabwe has contracted three firms -- South Africa's New Reclamation Group, China's Anjin and Canadile -- to mine in the Marange fields, believed to be the cash-strapped country's largest diamond find in a decade.

Last week the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) met in Israel and failed to agree whether to allow Zimbabwe to sell gems from Marange, after claims of forced labour and torture at the mines.

Zimbabwe has said it will sell the diamonds with or without the Kimberley seal of approval.

By AFP