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VOP trial postponed
MISA-Zimbabwe
June 13, 2006

The trial of the directors of the Voice of the People (VOP) radio station has been postponed to 25 September 2006 after the prosecution indicated that it was not in a position to proceed with the case because one of its key witnesses was out of the country.

The trial had been set for 15 June 2006 at the Harare Magistrates Courts.

The State, however, applied for a postponement because its key witness, a Mr Muganyura who is employed by the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) was in Switzerland.

Beatrice Mtetwa who is representing the accused, took issue with the State’s attitude saying the trial should proceed as scheduled because the prosecution could call other witnesses. She said the trial magistrate should note that the State had initially indicated that it would be ready to go to trial in January 2006 and had shifted that position to March 2006 and was now seeking for postponement of the trial despite its earlier assurances.

The State, however, insisted that it wanted to open the trial by first leading evidence from Muganyura.

It, however, turned out that the State could not proceed with the trial because none of its other witnesses had been subpoenaed to appear in court at the start of the trial.

Mtetwa told journalists after the postponement of the trial, that it was "extremely shocking" that the State had not subpoenaed its other witnesses to appear in court on 15 June 2006 despite having known that Muganyure would not be available.

She said the prejudice and inconvenience against the accused amounted to "persecution" of human rights activists in Zimbabwe.

VOP directors David Masunda, Nhlanhla Ngwenya, Lawrence Chibwe, Millie Phiri, Arnold Tsunga, Isabella Matambanadzo and director John Masuku, are accused of contravening section 7(1) of the Broadcasting Services Act Chapter 12:06 as read with Section 6 (a) (b) which prohibits broadcasting without a licence.

Maria Nyanyiwa, Nyasha Bosha and Kundai Mugwanda, journalists with the VOP are also facing similar charges.

Nyanyiwa, Bosha, and Mugwanda were arrested on 15 December 2005 after the police raided the VOP offices in Harare confiscating computers, equipment and administration files.

The trio were subsequently released without charges after spending four nights in police custody, but were later subpoenaed to appear in court on 15 June 2006 when the trial was expected to proceed.

Allegations are that the accused established an office at Beverly Court in Harare which they equipped with computers and produced programmes.

The news programmes were allegedly then dispatched to a transmitter in the Netherlands from where they were relayed to Madagascar.

The state alleges that the station in Madagascar then beamed the programmes into Zimbabwe via short wave.

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