Felix Chauromwe was convicted of corruptly removing three
suspects from remand.
The three suspects — Alois Togarepi, Obvious Vheremu and
Mussa Anesi — were each facing a charge of criminal abuse of office.
Chauromwe ordered the release of the trio despite the State
indicating that they were not yet served with their papers.
The State claimed the trio had, through their lawyer,
applied for refusal of further remand and intended to do so on their next
remand date. But, the magistrate chose to release on the very day.
Chauromwe went on to entertain the application, granting it
in contravention of a Proactive Direction 6 of 2021, issued by Chief Justice
Luke Malaba.
The practice direction came into effect during the Level
Four National Lockdown and was designed to govern the court’s operations,
filing of pleadings and processes and handling of cases.
Chauromwe was initially sentenced to three years before the
trial magistrate at Chinhoyi Court suspended one year on condition that he does
not commit a similar offence in the next five years.
He was convicted on a criminal abuse of office charge as
defined in Section 174(1)(a) of the Criminal Law Act, Chapter 9:23. H Metro
0 comments:
Post a Comment