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82
year old languishes in prison as judge postpones hearing of AG's
appeal against Hon. Mwonzora and villagers' bail order
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
March 09, 2011
An 82 year-old villager is amongst 24 detainees who are languishing
in remand prison after High Court Judge Justice Susan Mavangira
on Wednesday 9 March 2011 postponed the hearing of an appeal filed
by the Attorney General (AG)'s Office challenging a bail order
granted to the Nyanga villagers.
Rwisai Nyakauro
aged 82 years, who resides in Nyakauro Village is among 24 detainees
who are detained at Mutare Remand Prison including Nyanga North
Member of Parliament and Constitution Select Committee (COPAC) co-chairperson
Hon. Douglas Mwonzora pending the consideration of an appeal against
their bail order, which
was granted on Monday 21 February 2011 by Magistrate Ignatio Mhene.
Justice Mavangira
presided over the appeal hearing on Wednesday 9 March 2011 after
defence lawyers took the extraordinary task of collecting the record
of proceedings from Nyanga Magistrates Court and transcribed it
for the Judge after she had noted that the record of proceedings
was incomplete as some pages were missing.
The Judge postponed
the hearing of the appeal to Thursday 10 March 2011 to allow Edmore
Nyazamba, a law officer from the AG's Office to respond to
some point in limine raised by Hon. Mwonzora and the villagers'
lawyers Trust Maanda, Tawanda Zhuwarara and Jeremiah Bamu.
The villagers'
lawyers pointed out that the State's appeal was not properly
before Justice Mavangira as Nyazamba had not served a copy on Magistrate
Mhene in conformity with High Court bail rules to allow him to make
a comment if he so wished.
In his submissions
Nyazamba argued that the bail order should be withdrawn because
Magistrate Mhene misdirected himself by granting bail to the villagers.
Defence lawyers
insisted that Magistrate Mhene had not erred in granting bail to
Hon. Mwonzora and the villagers and hence the State's appeal
should be dismissed.
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