Police have testified that charges of attempting to suppress evidence in the cases against Henrietta Rushwaya and her alleged accomplices over her alleged attempt to smuggle 6kg gold out of the country relate solely to statements that could involve businessman Ali Muhamad, and not to any mention of the First Family.
Investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Michael
Chibaya, who is the main witness called by the State to support its opposition
to the granting of bail to Rushwaya and four of her fellow accused, confirmed
under cross-examination yesterday that the alleged deleted material had nothing
to do with the First Family, but only involved potential involvement of Ali
Muhammed.
One of the five accused now seeking bail, miner Gift
Karanda, is being charged with using fake Central Intelligence Organisation
credentials on the day of Rushwaya’s arrest in an unsuccessful attempt to
obtain her release by trying to claim she was simply a courier for First Lady
Auxillia Mnangagwa and her son Collins.
DCI Chibaya had already testified on Wednesday, under cross
examination, that the police saw this alleged attempt as simply a desperate
effort in name-dropping to get the criminal investigation dropped, rather than
anything based on fact.
But yesterday lawyers representing Stephen Tserayi, a CIO
member accused of clearing Rushwaya’s path through the VIP route at Robert
Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, and Karanda said there were inaccurate
Press reports suggesting the CIO was behind “removal of some of the facts that
implicated the First Family from the docket”.
Mr Dumisani Mtombeni, representing Karanda, and Mr Admire
Rubaya, representing Tserayi, complained about these reports in submissions
before Harare regional magistrate Mr Ngoni Nduna. Mr Mtombeni said the reports
were false, adding that the defence lawyers had no intentions of scandalising
any of the security institutions in the ongoing court proceedings. Karanda and
Tserayi are appearing in court along with Rushwaya, Pakistan businessman Ali
Mohammed and another CIO operative, Raphios Mufandauya, on allegations of
attempting to smuggle 6kg gold to Dubai and other charges associated with this
attempt.
However, Mr Nduna said he could not take the submissions on
record as he was yet to go through the media reports, leaving Mr Rubaya to
continue cross-examining DCI Chibaya over the bail application. In a bid to
clear the air on allegedly false media reports, Mr Rubaya questioned DCI
Chibaya to clarify on which information was allegedly deleted from the docket.
“Confirm that the alleged deletion of the information by Shoko and Chimungu
(two senior police officers appearing separately on charges of not arresting
Ali Muhamad) was relating to Ali Muhamad and not the First Family as was
reported in the Press and that there is no indication of a commercial invoice
having been removed from the docket relating to Rushwaya,” said Mr Rubaya.
DCI Chibaya confirmed that what was allegedly deleted from
the docket did not relate to the First Family. The bail application continues
today with lawyer Mr Joshua Chirambwi, who is representing Mufandauya,
cross-examining DCI Chibaya. Mr Mtombeni, representing Karanda, is also
expected to cross-examine DCI Chibaya once Mr Chirambwi is done.
Today marks 10 days of Rushwaya staying in remand prison
since her arrest on October 26 at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International
Airport in Harare.
Ali Muhamad, Tserayi and Mufandauya were arrested two days
later, and have been in custody since then. Herald
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