Nicholas van Hoogstraten released from cells

The notorious property tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten has slunk out of a Zimbabwean courthouse after a judge ordered his release.

	Van Hoogstraten is one of the biggest landowners in Zimbabwe

Van Hoogstraten, 63, was arrested last week on currency and pornography charges and his lawyers secured his freedom on the grounds suspects should not be held for more than 48 hours.

After four days and five nights in cells renowned for overcrowding, filth and lice, Van Hoogstraten, a multi-millionaire who once ordered a hand grenade attack on a business rival and has built himself a palace in the Sussex countryside, looked exhausted.

In the dock at Harare magistrates court he stroked the hair of his girlfriend Nyasha Gora, 22, who has also been charged in connection with pornography allegedly found at his house.

Prosecution papers said that around 150 pictures found in Hoogstraten’s bedroom were of “young Zimbabwean girls photographed in nude, semi-nude, and some in compromising sexual positions which were found to be obscene.”

After they were released the pair left through a back door, jackets over their heads, and sped away in a Mercedes sports car.

“High court judge Samuel Kudya ordered that he be released from police custody,” said George Chikumbirike, Van Hoogstraten’s main defence lawyer.

“If they want to proceed with the case, they can do so by way of summoning him to court.”

Van Hoogstraten is one of the biggest landowners in Zimbabwe, where he is said to have around 200 properties and be an important donor to Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party, but he was detained on accusations of charging rent in foreign currency, which is illegal in the country.

He denies all the charges, and also insists that he has not fallen out with Mr Mugabe.

But the Zimbabwean president’s allies are normally immune from interference by the authorities and his arrest has provoked a storm of speculation, with one businessman in Harare suggesting that “something very big must have gone wrong with him”.