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Mugabe
by-election challenge and Mtetwa’s case postponed
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
April 03,
2013
High Court Judge
President, Justice George Chiweshe on Wednesday 3 April 2013 once
again postponed the matter in which President Robert Mugabe is seeking
to be excused from complying with a court order that compels him
to proclaim dates for three Matebeleland by-elections by end of
March.
The Judge President
advised lawyers for the President and the three affected legislators
that he could and would only determine the President’s request
to be excused from proclaiming dates for by-elections, primarily
by interrogating the issue of the date on which Parliament
should legally be dissolved and whether this date would allow sufficient
time for by-elections to still be held. The head of the High Court
further intimated that the court was not the appropriate forum for
the resolution of a date for national elections, as this was an
issue requiring the attention of both the President and the Prime
Minister.
Prime Minister
(PM) Morgan Tsvangirai’s lawyer, Chris Mhike, who had filed
an application for joinder of the PM to the court proceedings, indicated
that if the Deputy Attorney General, Prince Machaya, agreed not
to pursue the issue of when general elections should be held, it
was likely that his client would no longer need to be party to the
proceedings relating solely to the by-elections dispute.
Meanwhile, Harare
Magistrate Don Ndirowei on Wednesday 3 April 2013 postponed to 8
April 2013 the matter in which prominent human rights lawyer Beatrice
Mtetwa is accused
of contravening Section 184 (1) (g) of the Criminal
Law (Codification and Reform) Act for allegedly defeating or
obstructing the course of justice.
Magistrate Ndirowei
postponed the matter to allow the human rights lawyer’s legal
representatives, Advocate Thabani Mpofu and Harrison Nkomo, to file
an application challenging her placement on remand, and for the
State to furnish Mtetwa with a trial date. The lawyers will argue
that no offence was disclosed by the State and thus Mtetwa should
not have been placed on remand.
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