Beatrice Mtetwa’s incarceration poses challenges for murder trial

Posted by on Friday, March 22, 2013 in Judiciary, Zimbabwe politics | 14 comments

Beatrice Mtetwa will spend another weekend in jail

By Violet Gonda
22 March 2013

High Court Judge Justice Joseph Musakwa on Friday postponed Beatrice Mtetwa’s bail hearing to Monday, in a development that risks creating a logistical nightmare for her, as the lead counsel in the murder trial of the Glen View 29, which reopens also on Monday.

The human rights lawyer was on Wednesday denied bail by Harare magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa and remanded in custody to April 3rd, resulting in her legal team filing an urgent application in the High Court for her release.

Justice Musakwa said the postponement is to give the State time to file responses to Mtetwa’s bail application, after the State indicated the transcript of the record of proceedings was brought to the High Court late.

But Mtetwa’s lawyer, Harrison Nkomo, told SW Radio Africa the State is not treating this matter with the seriousness and urgency it requires as this deals with the issue of individual liberties.

Nkomo said Mtetwa has indicated that she is ready to argue the matter for her Glen View clients, some of whom have been in remand prison for almost two years.

He said: “I saw her, she was in high spirits. It’s a matter of working out the logistics – bring her court regalia, she changes from her prison garb into the court regalia and she gets into court and argues the matter. Once that is done she goes back into her prison garb and back to Chikurubi prison.

“I know of no law that bars her from coming to court to represent the accused persons. Remember these accused persons chose her as their lawyer of choice and I think people should respect their rights.”

Nkomo said there are several options regarding the pending trail of the MDC-T activists from Glen View, who are accused of murdering a police officer in 2011. He said Mtetwa’s defence team could make an application for the matter to be postponed on the grounds that she cannot appear in court because she is incarcerated.

Mtwetwa’s other clients, four staffers from the Prime Ministers’ office, have also been in custody since Sunday. The MDC-T officials are being held at Harare Remand Prison and are being accused of impersonating police officers with the aim of gathering sensitive information about senior government and State officials.

One of the two caretakers from the PM’s offices, who was arrested and released on Thursday, was also rearrested Friday, facing the same charges.

Mtetwa is charged with obstruction of justice with police claiming that she “insulted” officers during their search of the premises of the staffers from the Prime Minister’s office on Sunday. She is being held at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison.

Some human rights activists staged a lunch time picket at the Rotten Row Magistrates Court on Friday, demanding the release of Mtetwa.

In Kwekwe, activist and Director of the Zimbabwe Organization for Youth in Politics, Nkosilathi Emmanuel Moyo, is said to have walked into Kwekwe police station and demanded to be arrested in solidarity with Mtetwa. The police refused.

Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists has issued a strongly worded message to Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, expressing concern about Mtetwa’s arrest and her subsequent detention by police in defiance of an initial order issued by High Court judge Justice Charles Hungwe.

“We believe this invalidates the criminal proceedings instituted against her on Wednesday and constitutes an affront to the constitution and legal system of your country,” the CPJ said in the statement.

Mtetwa is a former president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe and her contributions to the promotion of justice in the country include the defense of journalists. Mtetwa is the only non-journalist to be honored with CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award.

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  • Tora Bora

    I hope the PM was not keeping chickens or dogs at his comms office. The police will likely take them in for questioning..

    • Chimbwido Warvet

      That is what the Europeans and Americans do. They will finance local instruments/tools like you and Beatrice Mtetwa to cause strive in the country with view to finding an excuse for intervening in the internal affairs of an independent country. That is diabolic and evil.

      • dumbu

        Your comments are stupid. You better stop commenting if you have nothing to. ZANU yavakutokupenza nevanhu vamaiuraya vasina mhaka.

        • Chimbwidos Warvets

          You can tell SW Radio Africa that is publishing my work to delete my articles. If my comments were stupid as you would like the readership to believe, then they would not have bothered to publish them. All I do is to write what I think and post my comments for publication. What happens after posting my comments will no longer be my responsibility but that of SW Radio Africa. Talk to them nicely, who knows, may be they will listen to your stupidity and foolishness.

      • Yoozak Hunt

        This has nothing to do with European and American involvement. This is simply a Zimbabwean wanting to what is right on her own, she does not need foreigners to tell her what to fight for, not to finance her.

        Your childish ignorance is getting worse by the day… more importantly, your days as a ‘commentator’ are numbered because your lot will be ousted by true Zimbabweans in the next few months, can’t wait for your arrogant tears to flow

        • Chimbwidos Warvets

          Of course, that is what they always do if they want to influence the mind-set of the indigenous people to think in ways that will promote their economic and political interests. And they pick on idiots like you, Beatrice Mtetwa, Tora Bora and many others to do just that. In most cases, fools and idiots like you do not realise they are being used to promote the interests of foreigners against their own people.

          Zimbabwe is reputed as one of the most educated countries in Africa and there has been substantial high-quality research and fieldwork on how our people are being used by foreigners to work for them to achieve their diabolic and evil designs. And the proliferation of the so-called human and civil rights groups which never existed during the Smith and Muzorewa eras is one typical example. These soon emerged when the white settlers in Zimbabwe had the farms which they considered as their taken for resettling the people of Zimbabwe.
          Some of our people are being used willingly for financial gain but fools and idiots like you are just furthering the interests of foreigners unknowingly. The way you write tells a big story that you are just an idiot and fool who needs help.

          Lastly, elections are won only when they are won. In my Shona language they say, ‘usafarire nganga inobata uroyi hwamai’. Stay cool and wait for the outcome of the elections as the euphoria of winning before elections are held is only a pipe dream.

          • Yoozak Hunt

            Dude, you really miss the point…. it is your handlers that have brainwashed you into thinking that the likes of Mtetwa are being ‘used’ by foreigners to do their bidding.

            Perhaps one day you will realise that the majority of Zimbabweans are educated enough and patriotic enough to think and act for themselves.

            Like I always say in this column, ZANU-PF think foreigners are the enemy, but the enemy is in the mirror. I don’t care if you never realise this, your rhetoric is 32 years old and irrelevant.

          • Chimbwido Warvet

            I disagree with that view completely. Our problems as a country have their origins or roots if you like to foreigners who are well known. Like they have done in well known countries, the are financing proxies to influence regime change in my country and you know it is very true. Their idea is to impose a new political and economic order in Zimbabwe that would work in their interests. I am therefore refute the suggestion that I am out of sync with reality and the goings on in my country. Besides, I know the history of my country like I know the back of my hand. It follows, therefore, that if you want to argue with me, you have to research widely to shoot down my arguments.

            The proliferation of the so-called human and civil rights groups in the country that never existed during the rhodies era that murdered my people, is one practical example of their philosophy they use to get rid of the leadership they do not like even when it is popular in the country. The Americans did it in Haiti to remove Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a popular figure among the Haitian people, Patrice Lumumba of the Congo, now the DRC and Kwame Nkuruma of Ghana, just to name a few. And just recently, they have installed a government that worked in their economic and political interests in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Cote d’Ivoire, formerly the Ivory Coast, Tunisia and currently are supporting proxies in the DRC with the support of Uganda and Rwanda governments. Rebels are being financed in Chad with France taking the lead to topple a legitimate government in that country. If you do not these basic details which are in the public domain, then I have no interest in engaging with you in future for it will be like talking to a brick wall.

          • Chimbwido Warvet

            You probably have your proxies at this news outlet or perhaps you are simply a very lucky man indeed as my response to yours above has been found not worthy for publication by the powers that be at SW Radio Africa. What can I say?

  • Kris Black

    Chimbido, I feel sorry for people like you. So pathetic it’s unbelievable.
    Tell you what I’m tempted to post your real name and location here and then watch as the cookie crumbles.

    • Chimbwido Warvet

      Is it because you want to gag me or what? You want to bribe me for nothing. Pay me first if you want me to shut up and paying good money mate. If you do not pay, what you decide to do is your business and that will not stop me in propagating the truth to the world. What have I said that is unbelievable?

      • david taylor

        What is your real name Chimbido?

        • Chimbwidos Warvets

          Tell me yours first and I will then open up

  • Chimbwidos Warvets

    Anofanirwa kubuda muchikarabotso (detention) kana ma elections a July 2013 apera. Vana Mugabe na Joshua Nkomo vakagara makore gumi mujeri wani. Iye akagara nine months chete chingarwadza chii vamwe vakagara makore akawanda kudaro. Pamwe nedzimwe nguva paanobuda anobva ave Prime Minister kana kuti Deputy Prime Minister sezvakaita Mugabe na the late Joshua Nkomo, who knows?