POLICE yesterday said they had established that the incarcerated Energy
Mutodi, who was arrested on Thursday after he insinuated there would be a
coup, was part of an organised syndicate of powerful people, whom the
law enforcers want to round up.
Mutodi, who was charged with causing disaffection among
defence forces over his Facebook post about President Robert Mugabe’s
succession, was yesterday further detained after the State sought more time to
prepare and seek evidence against him.
He is represented by prominent human rights lawyer,
Beatrice Mtetwa. The businessman and musician is detained at Harare Central
Police Station and is expected back in court today.
The State had approached the court to further detain him
for an additional six hours, as the 48 hours permitted by law lapses at around
7am today before the courts open.
In his bid to seek Mutodi’s further detention, the
investigating officer, Detective Inspector Josephat Chitumbura, told the court
that Mutodi was not working alone in his endeavour to cause disaffection in the
defence forces, hence, the need for more time to bring all the evidence before
the court.
“Investigations carried out so far have established that
there is a concerted effort by an organised syndicate of high-powered people
working in cahoots with the accused, which we are still working to establish,”
he said. “Police are still working with digital forensic analysts to recover
additional material from the accused’s Facebook account, with a view to pressing
additional charges.”
However, his lawyer Mtetwa opposed the application, saying
the State is playing games by charging Mutodi basing on online publication article.
Mtetwa told the court that the State should consider
placing Mutodi on remand rather than applying to detain him further, as this
would infringe on his rights to liberty. “Mutodi helped the police to download the material that
they alleged he posted,” she argued.
“Social media posting can be done from anywhere in the
world and there is nothing before the court that warrants further detention.”
Mtetwa told court that there was no evidence linking Mutodi
to powerful people, as his Facebook account was not shared.
However, magistrate Elisha Singano granted the application,
saying the State needed to be accorded the time so it would not bring a
half-baked docket to court.
“The police made genuine reasons on why they want further
detention because they still need to browse the Facebook page,” Singano said.
“Is it the accused’s genuine page and this can only be done by thorough
investigations and I, hereby, grant the application.”
Mutodi was arrested after he posted an article with the
headline Why choosing a successor is a difficult job.
In the article, he allegedly said decision-making in
succession issues had always been a problem among Africans resulting in civil
wars, repetitive coups and economic turmoil.
He went on to give examples of Muammar Gaddafi, Laurent
Gbabgo and Idi Amin, among others.
Mutodi has posted several articles in support of Mnangagwa
in the fluid Zanu PF succession race. newsday
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