A gay-rights activist yesterday tried to "arrest" Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who was on a one-day visit to Belgium.
The president's bodyguards had to intervene when Mr Peter Tatchell, a prominent British gay rights campaigner, tried to make a citizen's arrest. Mr Mugabe is a hate figure for homosexuals, whom he has branded as "dogs".
Mr Tatchell yelled: "Arrest Mugabe, arrest the torturer!" as Mr Mugabe left the Hilton Hotel in Brussels. In the ensuing scuffle, Tatchell was pushed to the ground. He said he had been punched by a Zimbabwean body guard.
"I am OK, I fell down," he told reporters. "I said the president should be arrested for the crime of torture under the 1984 United Nations' Convention on Torture of which Belgium is a signatory."
Earlier, in his talks with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and other officials, Mr Mugabe defended his human rights record. "President Mugabe denied rumours that he was planning to expel all foreign journalists from Zimbabwe," Mr Verhofstadt's spokesman said. He said Mr Mugabe had also given assurances about the freedom of Zimbabwe's judiciary.