Zimbabwe's Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, has been sentenced to three months in jail and fined 50,000 Zimbabwe dollars ($900) for contempt of court.

Mr Chinamasa, who did not turn up for the hearing, was found guilty on two counts of contempt of court relating to his criticism of a court verdict and failure to file legal papers in respect of an arrest warrant issued against him.

This is a patently outrageous and sinister judgment

Information Minister Jonathan Moyo

This is the latest in a series of clashes between Zimbabwe's judiciary and the government, which intensified when courts condemned the invasion of white-owned farms by government supporters.

And in what a Harare lawyer called "blatant provocation", Information Minister Jonathan Moyo risked contempt of court proceedings himself, by condemning Justice Fergus Blackie's ruling as "sinister", according to the state-owned Herald newspaper.

"There is no doubt that fair minded and law abiding citizens will see this judgement for what it is: outrageous, sinister, highly personalised crusade made by someone who should be packing his bags," Mr Moyo said.

On Monday, United States journalist Andrew Meldrum was cleared of "publishing falsehoods" in a high-profile test of a tough new media law.

Out with a bang

Mr Chinamasa's lawyer said he would appeal against the sentence.

The judge in the case, Justice Blackie, retires on Thursday.

The minister did not defend himself

The announcement of his retirement by the state media in June followed his decision to issue an arrest warrant against Mr Chinamasa for his failure to turn up in court for the first contempt hearing.

His retirement will bring to seven the number of mostly white high court judges who have been forced to retire early.

The first was Chief Justice Gubbay, who was retired in March 2001 after the high court clashed with President Robert Mugabe over judicial independence.

Disrepute

The contempt charge arose from Mr Chinamasa's public criticism of the high court sentences passed on three Americans convicted of the illegal possession of arms three years ago.

	Anti-government judgements 1990s: Econet allowed to set up mobile phone network 2000: Land reform programme declared illegal September 2000: ZBC monopoly declared illegal January 2001: Presidential ban on election challenges declared illegal 15 July 2002: Journalist acquitted in media test case 17 July 2002: Justice Minister sentenced to three months in jail Full details of government's fight with the judges

Following their high-profile arrests, the authorities accused them of trying to assassinate Mr Mugabe but these allegations were not brought up in court.

Then serving as Zimbabwe's attorney-general, Mr Chinamasa said the six-month sentences passed by Justice Adam had induced "a sense of shock and outrage in the minds of all right-thinking people."

"The leniency of the sentences constitutes a betrayal of all civilised and acceptable notions of justice and of Zimbabwe's sovereign interests," he said.

In his judgement on Wednesday, Justice Blackie said that, "there can be no doubt that the statements made by Chinamasa were intended to bring Mr Justice Adam into disrepute as a judge and the administration of justice by the high court in this case into disrepute."

'Kangaroo court'

Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said that Justice Blackie's ruling was "shocking".

"We understand that Justice Blackie made the judgment sitting alone with no representative of the minister.

President Mugabe's government has often clashed with judges

He said it showed that the judge, "who has a history of kangaroo courts" had taken the matter into "a personal crusade and has done that in a manner that will erode public confidence in the justice system".

The minister said Zimbabweans should never again allow racists to be appointed as judges or the judiciary to be used to settle personal scores, the Herald reported.

The independent Daily News also reported the conviction, saying that the whole case arose from Mr Chinamasa's "abuse, threats and deliberately scorning and avoiding the processes of the court".