Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and two senior party officials have been charged with plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe last year.
The state's case against the trio hinges on two secret recordings of meetings Tsvangirai held with Canada-based political consultant Ari Ben Menashe in London and Montreal in late 2001.
But defence lawyer Chris Andersen said yesterday there was "clear evidence" the tapes had been tampered with.
He said an audiotape of the London meeting submitted as evidence was not the original, while a videotape of the Montreal meeting that has been heard in court contained words not recorded in an original transcript.
Andersen said it was "shameful" that evidence should be tampered with for what he said were "obviously political motives".
"Somebody in the state machinery has been prepared to tamper with and suppress evidence," he argued before Justice Paddington Garwe.
Defence lawyers want the treason charges against all three officials dropped because of lack of credible evidence.
A conviction on treason charges carries the death penalty in Zimbabwe.
The application to have the charges dropped started Monday and is set to continue this week. - Sapa-AFP.
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