FORMER Vice-President Phelekhezela Mphoko, who is being charged with criminal abuse of office, had his application for review against the magistrate's decision to dismiss his application for discharge at the close of the State case dismissed by the High Court.
Mphoko was arrested some months after the November 2017
coup that removed the late former President Robert Mugabe from power.
He was accused of storming a local police station demanded
the release of two Zimbabwe National Road Administration officials Moses Juma
and Davison Norupiri who had been detained by the police for corruption.
High Court judges Justices Benjamin Chikowero and Pisirayi
Kwenda dismissed Mphoko’s application and ordered that his case should proceed
to trial.
Mphoko had applied for a review of magistrate Tranos
Utawashe who refused to discharge him at the close of the State case.
He is facing criminal abuse of duty as a public officer and
an alternative charge of defeating or obstructing the course of justice.
Justices Chikowero
and Kwenda in their ruling said there were no exceptional circumstances
justifying the High Court interference with the unterminated proceedings
pending before the lower court.
According to court papers, on July 13, 2016, Mphoko
intentionally acted contrary to or inconsistent with his duties as a public
officer for the purpose of showing favour to Juma and Norupiri by appearing at
Avondale Police Station where he ordered the duo’s release from police custody.
In his defence, Mphoko said in requesting the police to
release Juma and Norupiri, he was executing an order by the late former
President Robert Mugabe based on top State secrets, believing that harm would
befall Juma and Norupiri if they spent the night in police cells.
Mphoko denied that he violated any law saying all he did
was to execute an order given by the now late Mugabe by merely making a request
for the release of the duo from police detention.
He also told the court that after the request, the police
through their protocol released the duo.
However, magistrate
Utawashe in his decision to refuse to discharge Mphoko said legally a
vice-president could not interfere with the police in their work.
The magistrate said presenting himself at Avondale Police
Station to an inspector who is of the lowest commissioned rank in the force
requesting the release of Juma, constituted engagement in conduct that is
inconsistent with the duties of a vice-president.
The magistrate further ruled that Mphoko should explain his
conduct in the defence case saying it was his own admission that he requested
for Juma’s release from custody.
Magistrate Utawashe had ruled that Mphoko was there
intentionally and acted intentionally in the act or omission.
“Was the release done after the accused had intervened with
his request for the release of Moses Juma at Avondale Police Station? The answer is in the affirmative. Both Zacc [Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption
Commission] and the ZRP had detained the two suspects to appear in court on the
following day. It was the accused’s request that triggered the release of the
two suspects,” Utawashe said in his ruling.
However, the High Court judges said in invoking the law
relating to interference by a superior court with the course of unterminated
proceedings pending before an inferior court, there ought to exist rare or
exceptional circumstances calling for the court’s interference which
circumstances could not wait until the trial is completed.
Mphoko had also listed his grounds for review against the
lower court ruling saying magistrate Utawashe made the ruling without
consulting the Constitution of Zimbabwe. Newsday
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