MARYLAND - High Court judge Justice Nyaradzo Munangati Manongwa has set aside an order made by chief magistrate Faith Mashure ordering two Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) members to proceed to their defence in a case in which they were accused of communicating falsehoods over abduction and torture in 2022.
Passing his ruling in a review made in terms of Section 62 of the High Court Rules as read with some subsections of the High Court Act, Munangati Manongwa said the State’s cases was in tatters.
The applicants – Joana Mamombe and Cecilia Chimbiri - challenged Mushure’s order to have the criminal matter to proceed to defence case on the basis that no prima facie (accepted as correct until proved otherwise) case was established against them.
They faced charges of publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the state as defined in Section 31(a) of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act (Chapter 9:23).
The two were accused of communicating falsehoods to their relatives, friends and legal practitioners that they were abducted and tortured by suspected state security agents in 2022.
In court papers in possession of VOA Studio 7, Munangati Manongwa said, “The evidence brought to court is found to be grossly unreasonable, irrational characterized by bias and malice and cannot be in accordance with real and substantial justice. The applicants cannot be pushed into a defence case to supplement the inadequacies of the State case and hope that in the process they incriminate themselves.
“To adopt such an approach would be unconstitutional and against the principles that place the burden on the State to prove its case and in this case on a prima facie basis at the close of the State case.”
Munangati Manongwa noted that the superior courts in some of the previous cases have already set the parameters, “and in essence, established that it is injudicious to support a State Case which is unable to stand on its own due to lack of evidence. Where such is the case an accused is entitled to an acquittal. It is not for the court to try and prop up a crumbling case, a court has to acquit in the absence of evidence to support an essential element of charge, or where the evidence is manifestly unrealiable that no reasonable court can act on it.”
He said the application has merit and therefore succeeds and in that regard, the applicants are entitled to a discharge at the close of the State case.
Munangati Manongwa said, “The accused persons Joana Mamombe and Cecilia Revai Chimbiri be and are hereby found not guilty, discharged and acquitted at the close of the State case. There is no order as to the costs.”
It’s unclear what course of action the State will take after losing the case.
Mamombe, Chimbiri and Netsai Marova were allegedly abducted, tortured, sexually assaulted after leading an anti-government protest in Harare.
According to Amnesty International, on 13 May 2020, after leading an anti-government protest, Mamombe, Chimbiri and Marova were arbitrarily arrested in Harare, taken to a police station and forced into an unmarked car.
“With hoods over their heads, they were driven out of the city. Scared for their lives, the women were thrown into a pit, beaten, sexually assaulted and forced to eat human excrement. They were found two days later, miles from Harare. Their clothes torn, covered in cuts and bruises, they were taken to hospital. While still hospitalized, Joanah, Netsai, and Cecillia were charged with criminal offences relating to the protest.”
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