The Rev. Canaan Banana, the former president of Zimbabwe, was found guilty of sodomy Thursday by a court in Harare, Zimbabwe, and faces up to 22 years in jail. The dock was empty, though, as the conviction was read. Banana, 62,apparently jumped bail last week and fled to Botswana, where he is said to have asked for political asylum and then gone into hiding. Judge Godfrey Chidyausiku issued an arrest order, revoked Banana's bail, which included his deed to a mansion in Harare, and asked his lawyer to try to persuade him to return for sentencing on Dec. 10.
Prosecutors are to seek extradition.
He was convicted of 11 counts of sodomy, attempted sodomy and indecent assault, all involving incidents with young bodyguards, gardeners and cooks assigned to him when he was president, from 1980 to 1987. The charges grew out of the 1995 murder trial of a police inspector, Jefta Dube, who killed a colleague. During a 17-day trial in June, several witnesses, including Dube, described seduction scenes the former president had enacted with them. They said he had invited them into his library in the executive mansion to play cards, gave them drinks, put music on and insisted on teaching them to dance. As they danced, he groped and propositioned them, they said.