RAPAPORT... Zimbabwe remains hopeful that it will recover proceeds from a diamond tender in Belgium that had been seized by court order in September and conditionally set for release on December 18. Zimbabwe's Mines Minister, Walter Chidhakwa, told the Xinhua news agency that the basis on which the ministry prevailed in its first case would also be applied to pending litigation in a second, unrelated case.
The Court of First Instance in Belgium ruled on December 8 that approximately $45 million in proceeds from a Marange diamond tender could not be awarded to Amari Platinum Holdings Ltd. as part of a $500 million damage suit against Zimbabwe. In a separate lawsuit, Dutch farmers lay claim to the diamond proceeds, too, in a $54 million case against Zimbabwe for being forced off their properties through illegal government land reform.
Chidhakwa said he was confident that Zimbabwe would prevail.
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