By Staff Reporter
LAWYERS representing incarcerated journalist Hopewell Chin’ono, senior MDC Alliance officials, Fadzayi Mahere and Job Sikhala, were at the weekend denied access, by prison officials, to their clients detained at the notorious Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison.
The trio is facing charges of publishing falsehoods after tweeting that an infant died on the spot after a Harare police officer had struck it with a baton two weeks ago.
Sikhala, the MDC Alliance deputy chairperson and Chin’ono were denied bail last week at the Harare Magistrates’ Court while Mahere, the opposition party’s spokesperson is back at the same courts this Monday for her bail application.
US$2,7m heist suspect killed in shoot-out, three still on the run
Herald Reporters
A suspect in the US$2,7 million ZB Bank cash-in-transit heist died in Zaka on Thursday in a shoot-out with detectives, while three others appeared in court yesterday.
So far, police have arrested 11 suspects in the staged robbery and have recovered US$690 000.
Three more suspects are still being sought, including the alleged mastermind.
Andew Chigara was one of the suspects on the run, but died at Ndanga District Hospital on Thursday evening from gunshot wounds sustained in the shoot-out at Ndanga Business Centre while he was resisting arrest.
Xinhua
ZIMBABWE is moving towards virtual court sittings as the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) moves to ensure the Covid-19 pandemic does not disrupt the delivery of justice, the country’s top judge said Monday.
Chief Justice Luke Malaba said court sittings had been highly affected by lockdown measures instituted by the government since last year to curb the spread of the pandemic, government news agency New Ziana reported.
“Courts could not afford to lag behind in harnessing the potential of ICT in ensuring that access to justice is not disrupted,” he said while opening the 2021 legal year.
“To this end, plans to introduce virtual court sittings are at an advanced stage. The process involves presentation of submissions by litigants and parties to disputes without them being required to be physically present at court,” he said.
Job Sikhala, vice-chairperson of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change Alliance party led by Nelson Chamisa, is facing charges of communicating falsehoods prejudicial to the state or alternatively inciting Zimbabweans to revolt against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration.
The prosecution has also charged prominent journalist and documentary filmmaker Hopewell Chin’ono, who was arrested last Friday for the third time in six months (Zimbabwean journalist released on bail after 6 weeks in jail), and the opposition party’s spokesperson, Fadzayi Mahere, with communicating or publishing falsehoods. Like Sikhala, Mahere was also alternatively charged with incitement.
Harare magistrate Ngoni Nduna ruled that Sikhala should face trial for violating a section of the country’s Criminal Law Codification and Reforms Act – but the relevant section was struck off the statutes by Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court in 2014.