By Staff Reporter
THE High Court has stopped the trial of Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) members, Joana Mamombe and Cecilia Chimbiri accused of faking their abduction before publishing falsehoods.
This has been done to allow the hearing of their application for review against a magistrate’s ruling dismissing the duo’s application for discharge.
They had applied for discharge on the basis that the evidence, which was provided by the State, did not establish a case against them, but Chief Magistrate Faith Mushure ruled the two had a case to answer.
High Court Judge, Justice Priscilla Munangati-Manongwa allowed the staying of their trial.
The application for review will be heard on November 17, 2022.
“The trial proceedings against the applicants in Case No. CRB ACC 45-46/20 in the Magistrates Court be and is hereby stayed pending the determination of the application for review in HC 6207/22.
“Joana Mamombe and Cecilia Revai Chimbiri shall file a complete transcript of the trial proceedings not later than 7 October 2022.
“Chief Magistrate and the State to file opposition papers in HC 6207/22 by 21 October 2022.
“Mamombe and Chimbiri shall file answering affidavits not later than 28 October 2022 and to file Heads of Arguments in the review matter by 4 November 2022 and the Chief Magistrate and the state to file Heads of Argument by 11 November 2022,”said the judge.
The two are being accused of faking their abduction in 2020 in a bid to soil President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration.
Mamombe and Chimbiri were arrested together with their friend, Netsai Marova, who is now in self-exile.
They insist they were arrested at a roadblock near Harare Show Grounds by suspected State security officers, who tortured them before dumping the trio at a shopping centre near Bindura.
Medical affidavits show they were brutally assaulted to an extent they were unable to walk, and spent several days in hospital, before their discharge.
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