Zimbabwe 'blood diamond' activist freed on bail.
A court in Zimbabwe has freed on bail sensitive rights activist Farai Maguwu, who is accused of providing feigned information about the diamond trade.
The judge dismissed arguments by stage prosecutors that he could interfere with witnesses if he was released.
Mr Maguwu, who was been detained for five weeks, denies the charges.
His in the hands of the law has delayed a decision by the body which oversees the trade in "blood diamonds" on whether to allocate Zimbabwe to resume sales.
He was taken into custody on 3 June after meet a representative of the diamond trade body, the Kimberley Procedure, and was previously denied bail.
The Kimberley Process suspended diamond exports from Zimbabwe last November in reply to allegations of atrocities committed by security forces in the Marange diamond fields in the east of the woods.
"His liberty should not be trampled upon on flimsy reasons," AP quotes the infer as saying.
Mr Maguwu's Centre for Research and Occurrence organisation has published several reports about the alleged abuses at the diamond contestants in Marange.
The army took over the Marange mines in 2008 and has since been accused of committing widespread abuses there - success some 200 miners and forcing others to work in the mines.
Campaigners say the diamond kale is being used to fund President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF social gathering.
Russia's Alrosa May Buy Diamonds From Government, Andreev Says
By Ilya Khrennikov and Maria Kolesnikova
July 12 (Bloomberg) -- Russia’s ZAO Alrosa, the universe’s largest rough diamond producer, may buy back some gems that it sold to the ministry for $1 billion last year as prices rebound, Chief Directorate Officer Fyodor Andreev said.
“The technique is now being discussed,” Andreev said in an interview in Moscow today after a confluence of the World Diamond Congress. Diamond prices have rebounded and are back to “pre-emergency levels,” Andreev said at the meeting.
Russia’s oversight bought the diamonds from Alrosa last year to support the company, Banking Minister Alexei Kudrin said at the meeting. Russia has earned 15 percent to 18 percent on the gems, Andreev said. Gokhran, Russia’s stage repository, may choose to sell the diamonds on its own or offer Alrosa “some class of swap,” Andreev said.
Prices of bluff, or unpolished, diamonds have climbed this year after producers including De Beers cut yield and gem dealers rebuilt stockpiles. Alrosa passed De Beers last year as the activity’s biggest producer.
Alrosa may sell $1 billion in 10-year eurobonds in October or November, Andreev said in the vet.
--Editors: Claudia Carpenter, John Deane
