JUSTICE IN ZIMBABWE 39 ____________________________________________________________________ On the first charge Mr Chinamasa was sentenced to pay a fine of $50 000, or in default of payment to serve three months in prison and also to three months in prison wholly suspended. On the second count he was sentenced to an effective three months in prison. In his judgment Mr Justice Blackie stated: “It is difficult to imagine a more deliberate and contemptuous response to the authority of the court than Mr Chinamasa’s.” He said “He has deliberately scorned and avoided the process and directives of the court. His only response to the authority of the court has been abuse and threats.” Mr Justice Blackie also pointed out in his judgment that the police had ignored a warrant for Mr Chinamasa’s arrest that was issued after he had not appeared for his hearing. He stated: “It is clear the police will not carry out the warrant.” There should be a separate inquiry into the conduct on the part of the police, he said. The Minister of State for Information and Publicity, Professor Jonathan Moyo, launched an intemperate verbal attack on Mr Justice Blackie in respect of the judgment. This is how the Herald reported Professor Moyo’s statement on 18 July 2002: “Judgment against minister sinister The Minister of State for Information and Publicity, Professor Jonathan Moyo yesterday described Justice Blackie’s judgment on the contempt of court case involving the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Cde Patrick Chinamasa, as “shocking, outrageous and sinister”. Prof Moyo said: “We have just heard of it but have not read the judgment. But we understand that Justice Blackie made the judgment sitting alone with no representative of the minister. He made the judgment without hearing the accused. We think this is a patently outrageous and sinister judgment. It shows that the judge, who has a history of kangaroo courts as he did with the MDC’s David Coltart in Nyamandlovu a few years ago, has taken the matter into a personal crusade and has done that in a manner that will erode public confidence in the justice system.” … It has emerged that Cde Chinamasa had apparently not been informed that he was due to appear in court yesterday.