Magistrate Gofa remanded Mtetwa in custody to Wednesday 20 March 2013 to allow the State representdd by Michael Reza to make its submissions in response to the bail application filed by the feisty human rights lawyer’s legal practitioners Advocate Thabani Mpofu, Harrison Nkomo and Dzimbabwe Chimbga, who are all members of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.
Mtetwa’s lawyers protested against the ill-treatment of their client while in police custody. They accused the police of abusing their client on Monday 18 March 2013, when two male police officers entered her detention cell at Rhodesville Police Station in the dead of the night and attempted to remove some blankets that covered her.
The lawyers protested that the police had not allowed Mtetwa to take a bath while in police custody and also denied her relatives, friends and lawyers access to her.
The police, the lawyers said interfered with Mtetwa’s privacy including that of her clients by confiscating her mobile phone when they arrested her in Harare’s Westgate suburb.
The lawyers also protested against the circumstances and the illegal manner in which the police executed the arrest of Mtetwa, a lawyer who has been in practice for more than 30 years, which was effected as she executed her professional duties of rendering legal assistance to her clients.
Mtetwa was charged with contravening Section 184 (1) (g) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for allegedly defeating or obstructing the course of justice.
In another case, Magistrate Gofa on Tuesday 19 March 2013 also remanded to Wednesday 20 March 2013, the case of four of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s officials, who were arrested on Sunday 17 March 2013.
The four including Thabani Mpofu, Felix Matsinde, Councillor Warship Dumba and Mehluli Tshuma were charged with contravening Section 4 of Official Secrets Act for allegedly receiving or communicating secret information, Section 179 (1) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) for alleged impersonation and Section 40 (1) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for possession of articles for criminal use.
Magistrate Gofa remanded Mpofu, Matsinde, Dumba and Tshuma in custody to Wednesday 20 March 2013 to allow Michael Mugabe, the Chief Law Officer in the Attorney General’s Office to file his submissions in response to the bail application filed by defence lawyers Alec Muchadehama and Chris Mhike.
Mpofu is also facing charges of contravening Section 4 (1) of the Firearms Act for allegedly failing to renew a firearm certificate and Section 28 (2) of the Firearms Act for allegedly keeping a firearm in a non-secure place.
Meanwhile, lawyers, human rights activists and members packed the court room on Tuesday as they attended and followed proceedings in solidarity with Mtetwa, Mpofu, Matsinde, Dumba and Tshuma.
Post published in: News
I write as a lawyer who has practised law, and taught advocacy, in many Africa contries, inclduing Zimbabwe. Whatever sham hearings and pathetic charades are now played out in court, the entire free world knows that they are a sham and that they cannot retrospectively cover up the flagrant contempts of court and abuses of what is left of the Rule of Law in Zimbabwe that have already been committed in this case, and many others. The difference in this case, which Mugabe’s thugs might do well to refect on, is that literally thousands of people in the free world also know the names and idenities of those individuals who have defied the rule of law, in their blatant and indefensible contempt of court, in ab the abused of a great lady who commands huge international respect. Police officers who behave in this way will outlive the regimes which they blindly serve in the confident believe that their thuggery will be protected. It will not. They need to be reminded, by the free press, that they personally are responsible for every unlawful act which they commit and which is being watched by thousands of people, and that they will, individually and personally, be held to account – probably far sooner and more directly than they realise.
shame on you zvimapurisa,manje muchasunga tose zvikashaya basa,mamagistrate ngwarirai your dayz are numbered muchanochera mbeva kumusha,why are you so biased,chihuri hupenyu hwako huchawe hwemujeri ,qoute my words