Harare  - Zimbabwean ministerial appointee Roy Bennett, who was arrested Friday shortly before the swearing-in of a unity government, has been charged with treason, his lawyer said late Friday.

Bennett, the MDC's candidate for deputy agriculture minister, has been charged in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe dating back to
2006, his lawyer Trust Maanda told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Police pointed to Bennett at the time as the alleged mastermind in the purported plot. He denied the allegations and fled to South Africa, where he was granted asylum in
2007.

The 52-year-old former farmer, who was thrown off his coffee plantation in 2003 during Zimbabwe's lawless land reform campaign, slipped back into Zimbabwe last month to lend his support to the formation of the power-sharing government.

Mugabe earlier swore in ministers from both the MDC and his Zanu- PF into a 31-ministry cabinet. Bennett and other deputy ministers were due to be sworn in next week.

His arrest at a small Harare airport as he was about to fly to Johannesburg Friday cast a cloud over the formation of the coalition government.

Reacting to the charges of plotting to overthrow the government by unconstitutional means and with banditry - charges that carry a maximum life sentence - Bennett's lawyer said: "That's balderdash."

The lawyer pointed out that another man charged in connection with the case, Michael Hitschman, had been convicted for holding firearms without a permit. The charges of treason were dismissed by the judge as having no merit.

Maanda said he had seen Bennett and that he was "okay." "Nothing happened to him," he said.

Outside the prison in north-eastern Zimbabwe where he is being held, police had fired warning shots to disperse a crowd of around 200 MDC supporters demanding Bennett's release, he said.

The MDC in a statement described the charges as "scandalous, vexatious and without bases in law" and demanded his immediate release. (dpa)