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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Index of articles on enforced disappearances in Zimbabwe
Magistrate
relaxes reporting conditions for abductees
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
March 24, 2009
Harare Magistrate Memory
Chigwaze on Tuesday 24 March 2009 relaxed reporting conditions for
four of the seven Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) members including
a freelance photo-journalist Andrison Manyere.
Magistrate Chigwaze ruled
that the four abductees namely Mapfumo Garutsa, Chinoto Zulu, Regis
Mujeyi and Zacharia Nkomo, who were granted bail last month by the
High Court must now report once a week on Fridays at designated
police stations rather than to report twice daily.
In her ruling Magistrate
Chigwaze conceded that the accused persons had religiously attended
court since they were remanded out of custody on bail. The Magistrate
indicated that the onerous reporting conditions of presenting themselves
to the police twice daily would bring the accused persons lives
to a standstill.
Other bail conditions
for the four accused persons remain unaltered.
The ruling by Magistrate
Chigwaze followed an application lodged by the defence lawyer Alec
Muchadehama on Monday 23 March 2009 to have reporting conditions
for the four accused persons relaxed to once a week either on Fridays
or Mondays as they had consistently attended court since they were
granted bail in February and to enable them to live normal lives.
However, Magistrate Chigwaze
upheld the State's application to further remand the accused
persons to 30 April 2009 to allow the State to complete the processing
of indictment papers, which the State has undertaken to serve to
the accused persons on 30 April 2009. Magistrate Chigwaze conceded
that that the Attorney General's Office has not been spared
by the current economic crisis engulfing the country highlighted
by its failure to source stationery and a massive staff exodus.
Defence attorney Muchadehama
had on Monday 23 March 2009 opposed the State's application
and applied for refusal of further remand for the accused persons
and had asked the State to immediately serve the accused persons
with indict papers in preparation for trial, which has been set
for 29 June 2009 by the State.
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