Lawyers representing Marry Mubaiwa, the estranged wife of
Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, are expected to file a bail application in
the High Court today challenging the decision by the magistrate’s court to deny
her bail.
Mubaiwa was on Monday remanded in custody to December 30 by
Mr Chrispen Mberewere after being charged with attempted murder, fraud and
foreign currency externalisation.
Mr Taona Nyamakura of Mtetwa and Nyambirai Legal
Practitioners, who is representing Mubaiwa, confirmed the development
yesterday.
“We wanted to file the bail application today (yesterday)
but could not because we failed to get the record of proceedings from the
Magistrates Court together with the ruling, which we wanted to attach to our
application,” he said.
“We are, therefore, going to file it tomorrow (today)
without those papers because we heard that some of the papers would only be
available by Friday.”
Mubaiwa is being charged with attempting to murder VP
Chiwenga, illegally externalising US$1 033 000, laundering US$990 000 and
fraudulently seeking to upgrade their customary union to a civil marriage
without her husband’s consent.
The attempted murder charge arose from the time she
accompanied VP Chiwenga to South Africa in July for urgent medical attention.
Mubaiwa allegedly refused to let him be admitted to
hospital for 24 hours until security personnel intervened.
She then allegedly visited VP Chiwenga in hospital,
dismissed his security staff and removed the intravenous giving set and the
central venous catheter.
The court was also told that Mubaiwa was being investigated
on charges of taking daily allowances of her aides on foreign trips and
vehicles won by models in the Miss Zimbabwe pageant were registered in her
name.
Investigations are also focusing on how she handled funds
for a charity organisation, the Musha Mukadzi Zimbabwe Armed Forces Foundation
(MZAFF).
Mubaiwa was not asked to plead to the four charges when she
appeared before Mr Mberewere, who remanded her in custody to December 30.
On the attempted murder case, Mr Mberewere advised Mubaiwa
to apply for bail at the High Court, which has jurisdiction over such serious
offences.
With regards to fraud, externalisation of funds and money
laundering charges, Mr Mberewere denied Mubaiwa bail on the basis that she was
a flight risk. Herald
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