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Justice Makarau postpones hearing into councillors' bail application
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
February 02, 2010

High Court Judge Justice Rita Makarau on Tuesday 2 February 2010 postponed a hearing in an application in which two councillors are seeking their release from police custody.

State prosecutor Edmore Nyazamba applied for a postponement of the application filed by two Banket Town councillors namely Emmanuel Chinanzvavana and Fani Tembo, who are facing murder charges together with Givemore Hodzi for allegedly killing Lancelot Zvirongwe, a ZANU PF special interest councillor for Banket.

State prosecutor Edmore Nyazamba applied for a postponement of the hearing into the bail application because the State had not yet secured affidavits from the investigating police officers in Chinhoyi.

Although the councillors' lawyer Tawanda Zhuwarara of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) opposed the State's application Justice Makarau postponed the bail hearing to Friday 5 February 2010.

The State alleges that Chinanzvavana and Tembo, who were themselves victims of abduction and torture by State security agents two years ago, and Hodzi kidnapped Zvirongwe between Banket and Chinhoyi and dragged him to an area in Banket, where they killed him with an unknown weapon and dumped his body into Kingston Dam.

The trio deny the charges and state that at the time that the deceased was allegedly abducted two of them were attending to a Save the Children activity at Kuwadzana Hall in Banket. Hodzi states that he was in Harare at the time Zvirongwe was said to have been kidnapped. The trio argue that their names are only mentioned in text messages, which are vague and contradictory in tense, meaning and sense.

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