HARARE Zimbabwean High Court Judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu has accepted the contentious email communications allegedly between State key witness Peter Michael Hitschmann and MDC treasurer general Roy Bennett in the ongoing treason trial of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirais top aide.
But the defence led by Beatrice Mtetwa vehemently moved to challenge the emails being admitted in court arguing that they were fake.
In his ruling on Wednesday Justice Bhunu said the emails were vital and relevant to the just determination of the case and they should not be swept under the carpet.
It is plain that the emails in question are relevant and vital to the just determination of this case. I therefore hold that the emails are admissible against the accused (Bennett). It is accordingly ordered that the emails be and hereby admitted in the evidence as exhibit 13, ruled Bhunu.
Bhunu found that the emails were executive statements made between Bennett and Hitschmann and could not be regarded as confessions.
But Mtetwa when cross examining a State witness Precious Nyasha Matare wanted to prove to the court that the emails could have been created by anyone, anywhere in the world.
She gave the witness a number of fake emails to read them out in court to show that and email can be created. The first email that she read out was from Johannes Tomana.
This did not go down well with Tomana who challenged the manner in which the defence was moving to cross examine the witness.
If these emails are being used for the purposes of embarrassing us, then they should not pass. It has become clear that the AG has been forced to carry this State burden in this case. There is no need to caricature the person of the AG in these proceedings. This trial is not about the Tomana, objected a furious Tomana seeking protection from the court.
He said he ought to be respected as the Attorney General during the proceedings.
But Mtetwa maintained that to show that the emails were false can only be done through Matare as she is the one who downloaded them.
By showing these emails we want to prove to this court that emails can be created by anyone from anywhere in the world. To stop us from using these emails would be to stop the accused person to place his full defence in this court. The purpose is to show this court that exhibit 13 could have been produced by anyone, anywhere in the world, said Mtetwa.
She said it was deliberate for them to use the name Johannes Tomana and those of his subordinates in the fake emails because they know the emails are not theirs.
The court cannot stop the defence from demonstrating how exhibit 13 is false. Those emails are not worth the paper that they are printed on. The accused (Bennett) never authored them. We want to demonstrate that it is childs play printing those emails, she said.
Justice Bhunu reserved his ruling to Monday next week after Tomana had indicated that he would be busy on Thursday and Friday attending to other government business.
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