By Trevor Sturgess

Ben Freeth faces possible detention - or worse - every time he goes back to the southern African state of Zimbabwe.

The man left for dead by Mugabe thugs, who had his farm torched and left in ruins, and who took President Robert Mugabe to court, has just left Oad Street, Sittingbourne, where his parents Claire and Zach live, for more days of uncertainty.

He was in Kent for screenings in Canterbury and Faversham of the award-winning documentary Mugabe and the White African.

It would be far easier for Ben, 40, to come back to Kent for good, bringing his wife Laura, also 40, and their children Joshua, 10, Stephen, eight, and Anna, five, for a safer life.

So why does he keep putting his life on the line? He said: "I go back with a little bit of misgiving in my heart, getting through the airport is always a question, who's going to be waiting for me?"

But he rejects the notion of quitting, his Christian faith underpinning all he does in the face of constant harassment and hostility from supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF party.

He said: "I think I'm more useful in that country. It would leave dictatorship able to continue unhindered. I believe we need to be there to help."

His fight has mainly been for the two million farm workers thrown out of work by Mugabe's land-grab policy.

Most of the land taken from whites has been given to Mugabe cronies who, in the main, have no farming experience and leave fields overgrown with weeds.

While the new "unity" government purports to be more accommodating, with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai the acceptable face of the Mugabe regime, Ben says that little fundamentally has changed.

He fears once the World Cup in South Africa is over, violence against white farmers and opposition supporters will resume.

Ben and his family - Laura's linen business used to employ 2,000 but now only 300 - could once again be in the firing line.

But his faith gives him absolute security.

He said: "Death is not the end, it's only the beginning and the start of something better and wonderful, so I don't have a fear of death."

He also has the strength to forgive his persecutors. Even while he was being tortured by thugs, he held out his hands to them in prayer.

He recalled: "They urinated over us, they put guns to our head, they had smashed a rock into my head and beat me with a rifle butt. I was lying on the dust and they were beating my feet really hard with a leather whip.

"I was crying out with each blow and calling 'Jesus. Jesus, if it's my time, then I'm ready. But if there are still things for me to do, then I'm also ready for that'.

"Those words of Jesus, Love Your Enemies, came into my heart and I suddenly had this overwhelming love for the people who were doing this."

In the middle of the night, the thugs dumped Ben, and his wife's parents, close to two churches and a house.

"If it had been another hour, we wouldn't have survived," he added.

For all the ominous signs, and intimidation, Ben is surprisingly optimistic that one day he and his family will return to their farm, and the country returning to something like normality.

But before that happens, he hopes the British government and African countries will set up a monitoring force that would move into Zimbabwe at the first sign of violence against the people.

He often thinks of Kent when he is in Zimbabwe, and the lovely English country garden created by his parents that he leaves behind.

He said: "I go back with many happy memories. I've started on a road and there's no way I'm not going to carry on."

Thankfully, Ben did not encounter any problems this time when he entered Harare.