|
Back to Index
This article participates on the following special index pages:
Violence, recrimination and arrests after policeman's death in Glen View - Index of articles
MDC members denied bail, case resumes tomorrow
Movement
for Democratic Change
October
10, 2012
High Court Judge
Justice Chinembiri Bhunu today denied bail to 29 MDC activists detained
on charges
of murdering a police officer at Glen View shopping center in
May 2011.
The judge instructed
the defense team led by Beatrice Mtetwa to seek bail through the
Supreme Court and dismissed evidence given to the court by the late
Mutedza's brother Tichaona Mutedza and father Solomon Mutedza
that the deceased had missing body parts on him - an indication
that Mutedza could have been murdered elsewhere.
The judge cited
irregularities saying the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights had
coached Mutedza's brother to incriminate Zanu PF and the police.
The judge said this was not permissible in Court and therefore could
not be justified as strong evidence against the allegations.
Justice Bhunu
said that since Tichaona Mutedza noticed that there were missing
parts and decided not to report to the police to confirm this, the
testimony could have been a fabrication. He described the evidence
as fictitious without any value and a waste of the court's
time.
Mtetwa in turn
argued that if the evidence given by the Mutedzas' was fictitious,
then the evidence by state witnesses that the 29 activists got into
two cars after the murder was also based on hearsay since there
are no witnesses and therefore, fictitious.
The judge then
adjourned the case to tomorrow.
Justice Bhunu
said it was normal for murder cases to drag for more than two years
and in this particular case the number of the accused justified
the length of time taken to bring the case to finality.
Mai Tsvangirai
together with Hon. Douglas Mwonzora and Hon. Nelson Chamisa were
at the court giving moral support to the detained MDC members.
The MDC maintains
that the detained members are law-abiding citizens who have no case
to answer. The Party acknowledges the dire need for change in the
country so that our laws can be impartial and citizens can receive
free and fair trial.
Meanwhile, Jackson
Mabota and Tarisai Kusotera the two MDC Youth Assembly leaders from
Glen View South are still detained at Harare Central Police Station,
two days after their arrest for allegedly murdering Inspector Mutedza.
They will appear before a Harare magistrate tomorrow.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
