“This is a sad day for the profession. We hope to have understood them (charges) by the time the trial starts, that is if we are to have a trial,” said Jonathan Samkange, who represented Godwin Nyasha, a law officer from the Attorney General’s Office facing allegations of abuse of office after he closed a fraud case involving Zanu (PF) apologist Themba Mliswa.
Mliswa was acquitted earlier this month. Nyasha was arrested last Thursday and spent a night in police detention before being released by Magistrate Shane Kubonera on free bail.
“The accused closed the State case without calling in other witnesses who were in attendance,” reads the State papers referring to Samantha Westwood, the Registrar of Companies and Samuel Masvokweni “to corroborate evidence” by Paul Westwood.
“This was a ploy to starve the State case of evidence against Mliswa and his co-accused persons. The accused’s conduct was unlawful and contrary to or inconsistent with his duty as a prosecutor as he subverted the objective of the criminal justice,” according to the State.
But an angry Samkange said: “I have served 10 years as a prosecutor myself. I have never seen anything like that as a charge,” he said. “How can one be prosecuted for using his discretion on how to prosecute? That is persecution.”
Outside the court, Samkange said: “Nyasha is a lawyer and a professional. He cannot be prosecuted for exercising his discretion. My experience is that, a prosecutor can even decline to prosecute where there is evidence. I will not speculate the motive behind this as I will be like them.”
He added that if Nyasha’s superiors were aggrieved by what he had done, it (the case) should have been treated as a disciplinary matter. “It cannot be a criminal matter, at all.”
Chris Mhike, a human rights lawyer told journalists outside the court that the arrest of Nyasha “was a travesty of justice.”
“At best, if there is need, this could have been a disciplinary matter on incompetence. I have to emphasise that if indeed there was such a thing,” he added. According to the State papers, Nyasha’s application to have Gerald Mlotshwa testify as a State witness was dismissed.
Post published in: Politics