Her trial is likely to open as soon as the courts resume
normal operations when the risk of Covid-19 infection recedes. Investigators
yesterday said they had completed their work.
Rushwaya will be tried on charges of gold smuggling,
illegal possession of gold and bribery arising from her arrest on 26 October
last year at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport when four bars of gold
weighing 6kg were found in the bag she was carrying to take with her on a
flight to Dubai. She is jointly charged with businessman Ali Muhammad and two
CIO officers accused of helping her through the VIP route at the airport.
Rushwaya applied yet again for bail on the grounds of
changed circumstances, listing three changes: the present tighter level four
national lockdown that makes it very difficult for her to travel and so
abscond, that the police have now checked her home for evidence over the
mistake she made with a bag, and which is the foundation of her defence, and
the fact that her health has been poor in remand prison and she suspects she
may have Covid-19.
Although the State continued to oppose bail, citing the
risk that she might abscond, Harare magistrate Mr Ngoni Nduna agreed her
circumstances had changed and granted her new application.
He ordered her to deposit $100 000 bail, barred her from
travelling nearer than 20km to any border and ordered her to report three times
a week at a police station until January 31. The reporting times thereafter
will be every Wednesday.
In response to Rushwaya’s application, Mr Charles Muchemwa
for the State, announced that the prosecution was now ready to proceed with
trial as soon as the Covid-19 restrictions were sufficiently lifted. At present
courts are only handling remands, bail matters and urgent applications.
“Investigations in the matter have sufficiently progressed
well. The accused’s bribery allegations are now ready for trial. The State is
just awaiting for the Covid-19 restrictions to be lifted to proceed to trial.
“We have also covered sufficient ground in the
investigation of the smuggling case and the case involving the unlawful
possession of gold cases.”
Mr Muchemwa said the State has established the link between
Rushwaya and Ali Muhammad, whom she is jointly charged with, and that the State
had a strong case against her, which warrants her detention pending trial.
He said Rushwaya failed to disclose the disease she was
suffering from, making it difficult to accept her condition without a medical
report.
In her fresh bail application made through her lawyers,
Tapson Dzvetero and Peter Patisani, Rushwaya said circumstances had changed
since the time she was denied bail.
“The first circumstance which has been discovered is that the Government has pronounced a new Statutory Instrument 10/2021 which effectively imposes a (tighter level four) national lockdown, whose import is that it restricts movement of people and such measures are imposed by law enforcement personnel in the country.
What has therefore changed is that the imposition of a
national lockdown will make sure that the applicant will not freely move, and
thereby the risk of abscondment is curtailed.
“The second circumstance which has arisen after the
determination of the initial bail application is that the police have conducted
investigations in respect of the applicant’s sole plausible defence.
The applicant during the bail proceedings averred that her
sole plausible defence to the charge of smuggling was that she had mistakenly
taken the wrong bag to the airport, which contained the gold instead of the one
which had her personal utensils and belongings which she left at home.
“The police did not endeavour to investigate this issue for
the whole lengthy duration of the bail proceedings up to the determination, but
however, the police have since acted on the applicant’s plausible defence by
removing the applicant from remand prison on 9 December 2020 after the
determination on bail had since been made and have proceeded to her homestead
where they indicated that they needed to see the bag she had mistakenly left at
home instead of the one carrying gold and she proceeded to show them the bag,”
she said.
Rushwaya said the change in the circumstances was that
police conducted their investigations and have since recorded witness
statements.
She claimed that her health was deteriorating in remand
prison and that she was showing symptoms related to Covid-19.
In his ruling, Mr Nduna said the court noted changes in her
circumstances that warranted her freedom, albeit under stringent conditions. Herald
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