THE Supreme Court yesterday acquitted MDC Alliance activists Last Maengahama and Tungamirai Madzokere of the murder of a senior police officer after it ruled that their conviction by the High Court was wrong, ending their eight-year incarceration.
While Maengahama and Madzokere were still serving their
extensive prison terms at the notorious Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison,
Musarurwa was at her home following her release on presidential clemency in
2018.
The High Court in 2013 found them guilty of a 2011 murder
of Inspector Petros Mutedza during a riot at Glen View 3 Shopping Centre in
Harare.
They appealed against the decision at the Supreme Court,
but were denied bail pending appeal accorded to their co-accused.
Their arrest came after a group of police officers, who
included Mutedza, besieged an MDC rally at the shopping centre, to break up the
gathering.
Mutedza got separated from his colleagues, resulting in him
being attacked by a mob. He allegedly died after being hit by a brick in the
head.
Twenty-nine MDC activists were initially arrested, with
others being convicted for lesser charges while Maengahama, Madzokere and
Musarurwa were convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years by High Court
judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu.
However, in a unanimous decision yesterday, Justices Rita
Makarau, Elizabeth Gwaunza and Susan Mavangira quashed the trio’s conviction
and ordered Maengahama and Madzokere’s immediate release.
“No evidence was led to show that the appellants were
present with the actual perpetrator when the deceased was felled by the brick
that caused the mortal wound. In the absence of such evidence, the law clearly
provided at the material time that the appellants could not be convicted of the
murder of the deceased,” the judges said.
“In the absence of evidence that the appellants
participated in the commission of the crime as provided for in the Code, they
cannot be convicted. They are, therefore, entitled to an acquittal on the
charge of murder.”
They further said Justice Bhunu had erred in arriving at
his decision.
“Witness evidence did not tell a seamless story, was
remarkably disjointed and contradictory in some respects. The evidence of a
police officer who placed the accused at the crime scene, an Inspector
Nyararai, was unsafe to rely on. Madzokere and Maengahama are entitled to their
immediate release,” the judges added.
MDC Alliance spokesperson Fadzai Mahere, posting on her
Twitter handle, said the release of the pair was a dark day for justice as they
spent life in prison for a crime they did not commit.
“What a sad day for justice. The Supreme Court today
confirmed what we knew all along. Last Maengahama and Tungamirai Madzokere are
innocent. They have been all along. Who will compensate them for eight years of
imprisonment at the hands of a cruel regime,” she tweeted.
MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa said: “We are delighted
that the comrades are vindicated and, as we stated from the beginning, they
were innocent, they are innocent and they shall forever be innocent. But what
pains is the fact that they have had to spend eight years in prison for an
offence they did not commit, doing them irreparable harm, irretrievable damage
and unjustified persecution.
”Justice delayed is justice denied. The fact that the
process of appeal and remedial action is taking too much time signals that
there is a danger and a hazard that needs to be eliminated. This brings to the
fore part of the fundamental discussions in our country to make our systems and
processes more efficient, to make our institutions more accountable and more
amenable to dispensing justice.”
He added: “As a matter of circumstances, it’s only natural
that there is a compensation to be paid, what I can term compensatory justice.
You can’t just take away people’s time and say that was a mistake by one
person.”
ZHLR, which represented the trio, said Justice Bhunu “was
obliged to acquit them at the close of the State’s case when no evidence
justifying their placement on their defence had been led and in doing so,
denied them a fair trial”. Newsday
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