Harare regional magistrate Mr Taurai Manwere dismissed CCC
members – Joana Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri, Stanely Manyenga, Makomborero
Haruzivishe and Lovejoy Chitengu – application to temporarily stop trial
proceedings pending the High Court determination of their application for
review of his decision to dismiss their application for exception to the
charges.
Mr Manwere also indicated that the chances of the High Court
interfering with reasons he advanced for dismissing their application for
exception were minimal considering the precedent set in other matters of a
similar nature by the upper court.
“From submissions made by both councils, it is clear that
in my view that there are no prospects of success.
“I am sticking to the reasons that I advanced and chances
of the High Court interfering with the decision are very slim,” said Mr Manwere
in his ruling.
In their application made by lawyer Mr Alec Muchadehama,
the CCC members had argued that the dismissal was unreasonable and was
punctuated by bias and so they wanted to apply to have it set aside by the High
Court.
“They have since filed an application for review of the
court’s decision at the High Court under HC21/22.
“The basis of that application is that your decision to
dismiss their application was unreasonable. It will not be prudent to proceed
with trial which is being challenged at the superior court,” said Mr
Muchadehama.
The State led by Mr Tafara Charambira and Ms Polite
Muzamani opposed to the application saying it was another way they had employed
in a bid to stall progress in their trial.
“The State is opposed to the application made in terms of
Section 165,” he said.
“Precedent suggest that the mere noting of a review at the
High Court does not stop trial proceedings, the reason being that the two
processes can run concurrently.”
Mr Charambira said trial proceedings could not be stopped
by merely filing an application for review at the High Court, but only when
there was good cause and the five needed to show good cause for an adjournment.
He argued that the High Court encouraged the magistrates’
courts to look at prospects of success for such review when making their
determinations.
“The High Court encourages the courts to look at the
prospects of success for such a review and the prejudice that may be suffered,”
said Mr Charambira.
“And in doing that, Your Worship Justice Chinamhora reminds
the lower courts that the High Court will seldom interfere in unterminated
proceedings of the lower court and in other words, for the accused to succeed
in their review application, it will need to be shown that your decision that
they are contesting is grossly unreasonable and completely wrong.
“It will not be enough for them to simply criticise it
because it is a different perspective. The implication being that chances of
success in getting the High Court to interfere with your decision are very
minimal.”
The State had also questioned the timing when the five
activists sought to have the ruling reviewed and asked why they failed to mount
the application soon after the decision was made.
The CCC members are expected back in court on May 26 for
trial continuation. Herald
0 comments:
Post a Comment