PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s “deranged” wife launched herself at a British photographer in a ”frenzied attack” while on holiday in Hong Kong, it was claimed on Sunday.
The British Sunday Times newspaper reported Sunday that its snapper “had to seek medical attention for cuts and bruises” following the alleged attack by Grace Mugabe, 43, and her bodyguard.
“She was completely deranged, absolutely raging with anger,” photographer Richard Jones told the Sunday Times.
POTTY: Grace Mugabe in the Sunday Times photograph during her encounter with photographers
The paper said Mugabe’s wife “flew into a rage” when she was spotted last week leaving the exclusive Shangri-La hotel in Hong Kong.
“She has been staying there with her entourage at a cost of £2,000 a day while her country endures poverty, hunger and disease. Holding a Jimmy Choo-style bag estimated to be worth at least £2,000, and hiding behind Cavalli rhine-stone-framed glasses with a red cashmere shawl over her head, she ordered her bodyguard to attack the photographer, Richard Jones,” the paper said.
While the guard tried to wrestle away Jones’s camera, she allegedly joined in the assault.
“The man held him while she hit him again and again in the face with her fists. She was screaming, completely crazy,” said Werner Zapletal, a tourist from Austria who witnessed the incident.
Jones, 42, is reported to have suffered nine cuts, abrasions and bruises to the face and head caused by the heavy, diamond-encrusted rings Mugabe was wearing, according to a medical report by Dr Raymond Ng, a general practitioner in Hong Kong.
During the assault more burly bodyguards came running from the hotel but were intercepted by security men from a nearby commercial building.
Mugabe and her female companion fled around a corner seeking to hide their faces, only to run straight into a second photographer, Tim O’Rourke. He snapped a few pictures before she flew at him with her fists flying, pulled his hair and tried to smash his camera. She then hurried back to her five-star refuge.
Hong Kong police, who were called to the scene, detained the bodyguard. He was allowed to go after questioning. The police took a statement from Jones on Saturday night.
A decision on whether to press charges is pending, the Sunday Times reported, but Mugabe’s wife could claim immunity from prosecution.
Mugabe and his wife holidayed in Singapore before he was forced to return home last week to conclude talks over a power sharing agreement with opposition rivals Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara.
His wife flew to Hong Kong on January 9 and installed herself in the £600-a-night Harbour suite on the 18th floor of the Shangri-La.
There she played hostess to the couple’s daughter, Bona, who studies in the city, and to a stream of relatives and friends. She rarely went out but other members of the party were ferried around in black limousines costing £60 an hour.
Hours after the fracas on Thursday, she left Hong Kong for home.
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