High Court presides over lawyer's law suit against police

HIGH Court Judge Justice Happias Zhou is today presiding over the pre-trial-conference in a case in which human rights lawyer Kennedy Masiye is suing Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers and Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri for more than $200 000 in damages he suffered when he was brutally assaulted by some law enforcements agents during the course of his professional duties.

Through his lawyer Denford Halimani, a member of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), Masiye filed summons in the High Court in 2015 seeking compensation totaling $225 000 from Assistant Inspector Mutemi, Chihuri and Home Affairs Minister Ignatius Chombo for damages he suffered when he was assaulted on Thursday 06 November 2014 by police officers led by Mutemi, after he attempted to offer legal representation to his client Itai Dzamara.

ZLHR communications officer Kumbirai Mafunda through Facebook post said Masiye, a projects lawyer with ZLHR, reacted to a call for urgent legal intervention and assistance to Dzamara and other protesters affiliated to Occupy Africa Unity Square movement, who were being assaulted by ZRP officers after they conducted a peaceful sit-in protest at Africa Unity Square in central Harare on Thursday 06 November 2014.

"However, after identifying himself to Mutemi and his colleagues, Masiye was on the receiving end as police officers turned their truncheons on the award winning human rights lawyer, punched him in the face and knocked off his spectacles and also threw away his practicing certificate issued by the Law Society of Zimbabwe, which he had produced to identify himself," he said.

"During the assault, Masiye suffered a fractured arm and had to be hospitalised at a private clinic in Harare, where he had his arm placed in a cast, which restricted him from conducting his professional duties for two months."

He said in a summons filed at the High Court, Halimani argued that the assault perpetrated upon his client was callous, uncivilised and affronted his bodily dignity and integrity and resulted in the unnecessary infliction of trauma, acute pain and suffering.

"The assault upon Masiye, Halimani argued was unprovoked, vicious, inhuman and degrading and grossly affronted his dignity, self-respect and esteem.
Masiye, Halimani argued will be haunted by the assault for the rest of his life as he will have to live with the scars of the serious injuries he sustained," he said.

"Out of the $225 000 that Masiye is claiming as compensation for damages he suffered, $200 000 will cover general damages for pain and suffering, humiliation, contumelia, inhuman and degrading treatment, discomfort, anguish and torture. In addition, Masiye charges that the ZRP is liable to recompensing him for special damages suffered being all the medical expenses he incurred and the replacement of his spectacles."

Mafunda said Masiye has also reserved his right to claim future medical expenses that he will continue to incur whilst undergoing checkups and rehabilitation.

"In suing Chihuri, Halimani argued that at all material times, the ZRP officers were acting under his command and control as head of the law enforcement agency in terms of the Constitution and the Police Act," he said.

"On Chombo, Halimani stated that as Home Affairs Minister he is vicariously liable for the dastardly acts of the offending police officers since they were at all material times acting within the course and scope of their employment with the Ministry of Home Affairs as duly attested members of the ZRP. Apart from Masiye, veteran human rights lawyer Mordecai Pilate Mahlangu is also suing several senior state security sector officials for standing in his way as he conducted his professional duties in 2009."

He said High Court Judge Justice Priscilla Chigumba will in May preside over the trial of some of the defendants whom Mahlangu is suing including Henry Sostane Dowa from the Law and Order section of the Criminal Investigation Department of the ZRP, Johannes Tomana, who served as Attorney-General in 2009, Chihuri and former ministers of Home Affairs Kembo Mohadi and Theresa Makone.

"Mahlangu, a board member of ZLHR, argues that his arrest in 2009 was not warranted as he was acting purely as a legal practitioner giving advice in accordance with professional requirements. In 2009, Mahlangu was placed under arrest and spent one night at Harare Central Police Station on a charge of attempting to defeat the due course of justice," Mafunda wrote.

"This was after he represented Peter Michael Hitschman, a weapons specialist and witness in a treason trial of Roy Bennett, a former legislator for Chimanimani constituency at the High Court. Hitschman was later turned into an accused person on allegations of illegal possession of weapons"