Mr Alec Muchadehama tendered to the court a letter from
certain lawyers which claimed that indeed Biti had met a person who later
tested positive to Covid-19.
The lawyer told Harare magistrate Mrs Vongai
Guwuriro-Muchuchuti that Biti was within the court premises in the car park but
could not be in court since he was self-isolating.
Senior prosecutor Mr Micheal Reza, who is prosecuting the
matter together with Mr Tafara Chirambira, applied for a warrant of arrest
against Biti arguing that he was supposed to appear in court since he was
warned to do so.
“We do not know whether the accused tested positive to
Covid-19 or not. A letter from lawyers cannot be a substitute of Covid-19
results,” he said.
Mr Reza’s application prompted Mr Muchadehama to ask for a
brief adjournment in order to bring Biti in court.
When the court resumed, Biti went into the dock and the
matter was then remanded to July 28 for trial. Biti recently had his
application for the recusal of Mr Reza dismissed because of lack of merit.
In her ruling, Mrs Guwuriro said the court was not
convinced that Mr Reza was likely to affect fairness in the trial.
“The defence provided nothing before the court which proved
that Mr Reza was likely to prosecute unfairly in this trial,” she said.
She further ruled that the defence did not provide
reasonable grounds why Mr Reza should be recused from the matter.
It is the State’s case that Ms Tatiana Aleshina was
allegedly insulted and assaulted by Biti outside the courtroom but within the
complex premises.
Ms Aleshina filed a report with the police and has also
lodged two further complaints with the Law Society of Zimbabwe.
Ms Aleshina wants Biti investigated for alleged gross
unprofessional conduct and alleges she and her workmates were intimidated and
verbally abused outside the court each time they came for proceedings.
Ms Aleshina is one of the witnesses in case involving
building contractor George Katsimberis who is alleged to have defrauded a land
developer with whom he had entered into a joint venture to build cluster houses
in Harare’s Borrowdale suburb.
In the matter, Katsimberis is accused of using plans that
were not approved by council which led to the show house being demolished. Ms
Aleshina is the chief operating officer of the land developer.
She claims that on November 30 last year as she was about
to leave the court gallery after a court session, Biti allegedly threatened to
harm her.
“It was clear to all people who were in the court gallery
that Biti took delight not only in verbally abusing me, but in trying to
intimidate me and felt that, as a woman and foreigner of Russian origin, he
would use every extra judicial means to crush me or harm or destroy me for
daring to be a witness in the criminal matter against his client,” she stated in
her complaint. Herald
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