NEWS Sentence on Banana postponed while search for former president continues December 10, 1998 HARARE - Lawyers on Thursday said the Harare High Court postponed passing sentence on fugitive ex-president Canaan Banana to allow authorities to find him and have him extradited to Zimbabwe. Banana fled the country two weeks ago, shortly before Judge Godfrey Chidyausiku found him guilty of 11 charges involving sexual assault, committed while he was the country's ceremonial head of state between 1980 and 1986. Orders for his arrest were immediately issued when he failed to turn up for the verdict. Zimbabwean authorities said the 62-year-old clergyman skipped the border into neighbouring Botswana. He later appeared in South Africa for an unexpected meeting with President Nelson Mandela but then disappeared again. Banana's attorney, Josephine McNally, said Chidyausiku on Thursday agreed that state lawyers should be given more time to extradite Banana, and that his counsel would be given more time to get him to come back and give them further instructions on how to proceed with his defence. The judge also wanted to hear legal arguments over whether it was just for anyone to be sentenced in absentia. McNally said it appeared from previous legal cases that it would be impossible to do that without the accused being present. The hearing was postponed until January 18. Banana's fall from grace has stunned Zimbabwean society which regarded the churchman, scholar, author and international envoy as a pillar of respectability. However, his three-week trial in June revealed him as a predatory homosexual who used his power as state president to try and force ten young men -- a hitchhiker and bodyguards, aides, a cook and a gardener at his official residence -- into having sex with him. The affair has deeply embarrassed the government of President Robert Mugabe, who four years ago mounted a virulent anti-gay campaign during which he condemned gays. At the time he said: "The animals of the jungle are better than these people, because at least they know the difference between a man and a woman." The trial also revealed that Banana's rampant homosexuality was common knowledge among Zimbabwe's top political and military elite, but they failed to take any action to stop him during the time of his presidency. -Sapa