He said the various criminal charges he has faced over the years were all part of an orchestrated plan to embarrass him and his party, and accused state security agents of leading the crusade.
Recently Mwonzora was summoned to appear before Harare magistrate Themba Kuwanda in a 14- year-old case in which he was accused of swindling his client, Lameck Kunjeku of Z$300,000. The case was later dropped. Kunjeku said that he was no longer interested in the case and the magistrate said the state’s insistence on it created “unnecessary suspicion on the system”.
“In these charges they have not been worried at all about whether they can secure a conviction or not. All they want is to create adverse publicity against me to affect both me as an individual and the MDC as a party,” Mwonzora said. “None of the charges over the years have succeeded.”
The charges are usually timed to coincide with important assignments in his career. “As we were about to enter negotiations on the constitution they brought spurious charges that I had abused proceeds from a house belonging to a widow in Masvingo, but I was exonerated by the woman,” he said.
“Now they have brought these latest charges against me and on 18 October they want the Law Society of Zimbabwe to deregister me,” said the lawyer who in in 1997 successfully argued against the Political Parties (Finance) Act “under which Zanu (PF) was siphoning money from taxpayers”.
Mwonzora is set to stand trial for theft of trust property in a case dating back to 2006. He is accused of stealing Z$5,45 million from Everson Shepherd Dandazi. The money was a refund from a cancellation of agreement of sale of a property located at number 157, Meyrick Park, Mabelreign, Harare.
MDC-T deputy national chairman Morgan Komichi is in remand prison, on trial for fraud and contravening the Electoral Act after he presented to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission a ballot paper he found in a dustbin before the July 31 election.
“The Komichi case is simply meant to divert attention from the very serious irregularities in the elections. Instead of making him a witness they made him the accused,” Mwonzora said.
Post published in: News
Mr Mwonzora should explain why the ballot paper Komichi found belongs to a policeman that has stated very clearly that he never voted. Our eyes and ears are open.