A Binga inyanga serving nine years in prison for illegal
possession of 400 grammes of pangolin scales has approached the High Court
challenging his sentence.
Damason Mutale (39) of Chininga village was last year
convicted of violating a section of the Parks and Wildlife Act (unlawful
possession of pangolin trophy scales) and sentenced to an effective nine years
in jail by Binga magistrate Mr Livard Philemon .
Mutale, through his lawyers Mvhiringi and Associates, filed
an application challenging both conviction and sentence.
He is seeking an order nullifying Mr Philemon’s sentence,
arguing that it was too excessive. In his grounds of appeal, Mutale said the lower
court erred by failing to consider special circumstances.
“The court a quo erred grossly at law and fact in finding
that there were no special circumstances in the case yet appellant pointed out
that he was a traditional healer, ” argued the lawyers.
The lawyers also said the court erred by failing to
recognise that the appellant is an unsophisticated and uneducated man.
“The appellant was genuinely ignorant of the law and was
genuinely mistaken for thinking that as a traditional healer he could continue
to use the pangolin scales for traditional purposes,” said the lawyers.
According to papers before the court, Mutale was arrested
after someone tipped an official from the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife
Management Authority (Zimparks) that he was in possession of 71 pangolin
scales.
Zimparks officials teamed up with police detectives and
raided Mutale’s home leading to the discovery of the pangolin scales weighing
400g. He failed to produce a permit leading to his arrest. Chronicle
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