The two are jointly charged with the suspended executive
secretary for the Council for Legal Education Huggins Hardwork Duri on fraud
charges.
The trial was supposed to be on a continuous roll for
yesterday and today but the State made an application seeking a postponement.
Initially, the State led its witness Edith Mandiyanike, who
is the business and public relations officer at Fidelity Printers where the law
certificates are now printed.
In her evidence in chief, Ms Mandiyanike told the court
that she has worked for the company for the past 20 years and only knew Duri as
a client since 2022 when Fidelity took over the printing of the certificates
for CLE.
She told the court that CLE sends a request for printing of
certificates and Fidelity Printers gives a quotation. CLE then deposit the
money and send her proof of payment so that she could print the certificates.
She added that CLE through Duri send a list of names of
students and after printing the certificates they advise CLE to come and
collect them.
State prosecutor Mr Anesu Chirenje then wanted to tender in
evidence an email supposedly containing the list of student names from CLE
which was opposed by the defence counsel for the accused persons arguing that
they had not been served with the email prior to trial commencement.
Presiding magistrate Mrs Feresi Chakanyuka after several
submissions by both State and defence counsel ordered that the document not be
tendered, hence trial should proceed.
“The objection is sustained…it is prejudicial to the
defence to extract evidence from the email without having served them.
Therefore, the matter has to proceed,” she said.
There was a brief adjournment and Mr Chirenje sought for a
postponement in light of the ruling that had been given by the court.
“Your worship we are seeking a postponement in terms of
Section 165 in light of the ruling made by the court. The ruling marked a
defining moment to the State case. We want to explore options. We want to
transcribe the record and proceed on the 19th. We believe that issues being
raised have substantial effect on the State case and be given ample time to go
through the record of proceedings.
“The executive assistant is writing a letter to the clerk
of court so that the process is expedited. The postponement is necessary and
expedient in the interest of justice,” he said.
The three defence counsel of Mr Admire Rubaya, Mr Everson
Chatambudza and Mr Oliver Marwa strongly opposed the application which they
described as frivolous, vexatious and unconstitutional.
They argued that the State did not give sufficient reasons
to justify a postponement as it did not tell the court what it wanted to do
with the record and citing that a postponement would not be fair to the accused
persons.
After hearing submissions of both parties Mrs Chakanyuka
granted the application for postponement.
The matter returns on February 19 for trial continuation. Herald
0 comments:
Post a Comment