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Independent journalists removed from remand
MISA-Zimbabwe
January 11, 2005

Vincent Kahiya, Dumisani Muleya, Iden Wetherell and Itai Dzamara, the four independent journalists who were facing charges of criminal defamation, were on 10 January removed from remand after the State failed to come up with a trial date.

The four journalists who work for the privately-owned Zimbabwe Independent had been on remand for almost a year on charges of criminally defaming President Robert Mugabe.

The charges arise from the weekly paper's edition of 9 January 2004 which claimed that President Mugabe had commandeered an Air Zimbabwe aircraft to the Far East.

The story claimed that President Mugabe commandeered an Air Zimbabwe plane to Indonesia and Singapore while he was on leave in January 2004. The State alleges that the story was defamatory to the President, government and the community.

However, Magistrate Crema Chipere on 10 January this year, exactly a year after the story in question was published, declined to further remand the journalists after the State failed to set their trial date.

The magistrate said the State could still proceed by way of summons.

Kahiya, Wetherell, Muleya and Dzamara are the Zimbabwe Independent's editor, special projects editor, news editor and reporter respectively.

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