A Harare magistrate Lazarus Murendo has heard that two MDC supporters who appeared as the accused person facing assault charges was seriously tortured and one of his three co-accused was denied legal and medical attention whilst in police custody.The four Kudakwashe Ngorima, Wiseman Murwira, Robson Mudhinwa and Faresi Mapiki allegedly assaulted Andrew Shambo of Zanu (PF).
Kudakwashe Ngorima left the court and the gallery baffled when he showed the court the bruises allegedly inflicted upon him by one constable Manyane and his other accomplice when he was in police custody. While the court heard that one constable Nyazema of Rugare handcuffed the second accused before allowing a mob of Zanu (PF) supporters to attack him in the charge office, with him standing aloof.
The state represented by Memory Gweshe denied the four bail citing the gravity of the offence as the sole reason, while in his application for bail, the fours defense lawyer Mr Gift Mutisi, of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said the states job was not necessarily to oppose bail but to serve the best interest of justice.
The states job is not only to oppose bail, but to serve the interest of justice, that is to see to it that the society of which the accused are part of, see that justice prevail, said Mutisi in his application.
He also went on to remind the court that his clients were still to be treated as innocent until proven otherwise by the court and indicated that there was no strong case against the four as evidenced by the random arrests by the police in which he stated that the police had earlier on arrested twelve suspects before coming up with the final four whom he said were not even there at the time the alleged offence was committed.
The accused persons have raised a very valid point that they were not there when this offence was committed. This can be justified because of the random arresting behavior by the police where twelve people were initially arrested (I take it as a dragnet) just arresting people at random.
Despite the police report having been made on 2 February, the state was still not yet able to produce a medical affidavit for the complaint to establish the amount of injuries sustained when he was allegedly assaulted.
The four where however granted $50 each as bail after the ruling for bail had been deferred to Tuesday, 8 February 2011, while the trial date was set as the 28th of February.
Post published in: News