JUSTICE IN ZIMBABWE
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present, that would be sufficient grounds for holding that a reasonable suspicion
exists that an offence has been committed by such other. On that basis an arrest is
justifiable. The accused person may be placed on remand on the same basis and
indicted if needs be.
He concluded that the application had been made “solely for purposes of defeating the
indictment.”
With respect, the learned judge’s ruling is unsupportable. As indicated above, he did
not refer to the indict papers, but seemed to accept that the only evidence against the
applicants was contained in confessions allegedly made by their co-accused. These
confessions were inadmissible against the applicants, even if they were to be admitted
in evidence against the persons who made them. There was therefore no admissible
evidence against the applicants, and so no “reasonable and probable cause” for their
prosecution. It might conceivably be argued that there was sufficient suspicion for a
court to put them on remand immediately after their arrest, in the expectation that the
police would be able to gather further evidence from information contained in the
confessions; but as the learned judge noted, they had been on remand for close on
nine months. If after that time the only evidence against them was inadmissible, what
possible justification was there for indicting them for trial in the High Court?
Immediately after the ruling, the counsel from the Attorney General’s Office applied
in the magistrate’s court for warrants of arrest for the three.
A few days after the granting of the provisional order Mr Justice Kamocha was
transferred to Harare. He had apparently been asked by Judge President Garwe to
write a report about his ruling in this case. There was speculation that the ruling party
had been angered by Mr Justice Kamocha’s order and that he was being transferred to
Harare so that he could be placed under the supervision of the Judge President. 143
Three other suspects, Augustine Khethani Sibanda, Remember Moyo and Sazini
Mpofu had already been indicted for trial and are in remand prison awaiting trial.
The lawyers acting for Fletcher Dulini Ncube, Sony Masera and Army Zulu then
made a fresh application to the High Court for the re-instatement of bail, which had
been terminated by their indictment for trial in the High Court. The State continued to
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