JUSTICE IN ZIMBABWE 91 ____________________________________________________________________ oppose bail. The defence lawyer submitted that the State case was weak at the time the three were granted bail, and that there was no new evidence when they were indicted that would justify their detention in custody. Consequently, there was no inducement for the three to abscond since there was no expectation of conviction. In his judgment handed down on 16 August 2002 Mr Justice Matika accepted the submissions by the defence lawyer. He said: “There is no new evidence which the State has unearthed which tends to implicate the applicants. There is no fear that they will either not stand trial or interfere with witnesses or commit any offence while on bail. There is no inducement for them to abscond. I agree that there is no expectation of conviction.”144 (Emphasis added.) In respect of the case of Fletcher Dulini Ncube, he took into account his deteriorating health and that he had lost an eye and is presently in hospital. This, he said, was a new factor that was not before the court when it considered his application for bail pending trial. The judge therefore granted them bail on the same conditions as before. Suspects breach bail conditions On 23 August 2002 The Herald newspaper reported that Gilbert Moyo and Army Zulu had breached their bail conditions and absconded. This emerged in a case in which three alleged accomplices of Moyo and Zulu were applying for bail. Refusing bail to them the judge found that the State’s fears that the suspects might abscond were justified, as they were likely to be convicted and to be jailed for a long time. This was fortified by the fact that their alleged accomplices, Moyo and Zulu, had disappeared. Police Commissioner lashes out at courts It was reported at the end of August 2002 that the Police Commissioner had “lashed out” at the courts for the way in which they were handling cases in which MDC members were accused of murder. In particular, he said that he was “appalled” that the courts had handled with “kid gloves” the MDC suspects in the killings of Nkala