CRIMINAL PROCEDURE AND EVIDENCE ACT (a) (b) (c) (d) the nature of the proceedings; and the nature of the record, document or article; and the purpose for which the record, document or article is tendered in evidence; and any prejudice that may be occasioned to the accused or the prosecution if the record, document or article is admitted in evidence; and (e) any other factor which, in the court’s opinion, should be taken into account. (3) In estimating the weight, if any, to be given to any record, document or article admitted in terms of subsection (1), the court shall have regard to all the factors which, in its opinion, affect its probative value. (4) Where a document is admissible in evidence only if it has been prepared, attested, certified, compiled or executed by a particular person or by a person holding a particular office, possessing a particular qualification, performing a particular function or engaged in a particular activity, a similar document emanating from a foreign country shall not be admissible in terms of subsection (1) unless it has been prepared, attested, certified, compiled or executed, as the case may be, by an equivalent person in that foreign country. (5) For the purposes of subsection (4), the Minister may, by statutory instrument, declare that any person or class of persons in a foreign country shall be regarded as equivalent to any person or class of persons in Zimbabwe: Provided that an omission by the Minister to make such a declaration shall not prevent a court from determining for itself whether or not any person in a foreign country is equivalent to a person in Zimbabwe. (6) A certificate purporting to be signed by the Prosecutor-General or the National Director of Public Prosecutions and stating that any record, document or article was produced or obtained in response to a request in terms of section 10 of the Criminal Matters (Mutual Assistance) Act [Chapter 9:06] shall be admissible in evidence in any court on its mere production by any person, and shall be prima facie proof of the facts stated therein. [Subsection amended by s. 33 of Act No. 5 of 2014 with effect from 2.1.2015] (7) This section shall not be construed as affecting the admissibility under any other law of any record, document or article referred to in subsection (1). [Section as inserted by s. 2 of Act No. 8 of 1998.) F. Evidence of accomplices 267 Accomplices as witnesses for prosecution (1) When the prosecutor at any trial informs the court that any person produced by him or her as a witness on behalf of the prosecution has, in his or her opinion, been an accomplice, either as principal or accessory, in the commission of the offence alleged in the charge, such person shall, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Act, be compelled to be sworn or to make affirmation as a witness and to answer any question the reply to which would tend to incriminate him or her in respect of such offence. [Subsection as substituted by s. 22 of Act No. 9 of 2006] (2) If a person referred to in subsection (1) fully answers to the satisfaction of the court all such lawful questions as may be put to him, he shall, subject to subsection (3), be discharged from all liability to prosecution for the offence concerned and the court or magistrate, as the case may be, shall cause such discharge to be entered on the record of the proceedings. (3) A discharge in terms of subsection (2) shall be of no effect and the entry thereof on the record of the proceedings shall be deleted if, when called as a witness at the trial of any person upon a charge of having committed the offence concerned, the person concerned refuses to be sworn or to make affirmation as a witness or refuses or fails to answer fully to the satisfaction of the court all such lawful questions as may be put to him. [Subsection as amended by s. 22 of Act No. 9 of 2006] 99