KEREKE BACK IN JAIL

Munyaradzi Kereke has lost his appeal at the Supreme Court and is returning to prison to complete his sentence.

He had been jailed for an effective 10-year jail term for raping a juvenile relative. He is out of custody on bail pending appeal. He will now have to serve the remaining 20 months in prison.

The Supreme Court dismissed all the five grounds of appeal by Kereke.  He had argued that the trial court failed to apply the correct test in assessing Kereke’s defence of an alibi, and in doing so failed to take into cognisance the fact that the prosecution led no rebuttal evidence.

But the court  ruled that the complainant was the primary witness, whose testimony passed the requisite threshold of credibility set out in case law.

“We are, therefore, satisfied that the defence of an alibi was properly disproved and shown to be false beyond a reasonable doubt. Similarly, the prosecution established beyond a reasonable doubt that all the defence witnesses were coached by the appellant. The defence of an alibi and the other exculpatory evidence of the defence witnesses were clearly shown not only to be reasonably untrue but also to be palpably false.”

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