'Baba Jukwa' suspect remanded to July 7

Sunday Mail editor Edmund Kudzayi who is facing banditry and terrorism charges has been remanded to July 7 and advised to approach the High Court for bail since his offence is classified under 3rd schedule.

Kudzayi appeared before Harare magistrate Vakai Douglas Chikwekwe early Monday who advised the former to approach the High Court for bail since he is facing terrorism charges that fall under the jurisdiction of the higher court.

Defence lawyer Admire Rubaya is expected to make a bail application at the High Court by day end Monday, but Kudzayi will appear for his routine remand hearing on the 7th of July at the magistrate court.

Earlier Monday, Kudzayi's lawyer Rubaya requested the magistrate to order prison officials to unshackle his client who appeared in leg irons while in the dock.

The order was subsequently granted.

Kudzayi, 28, spent the weekend in custody after the state represented by Tawanda Zvekare, and his team, agreed to postpone his bail application to Monday when he first appeared in court on Saturday.

The editor was arrested on Thursday last week and is being charged with attempting to commit acts of insurgence, banditry, sabotage or terrorism and undermining the authority of the president.

The state claims that Kudzayi, his brother Philip Tawanda Kudzayi and others still at large planned to unseat the government through unconstitutional means before July 31 2013 elections through the creation of the controversial faceless Facebook page Baba Jukwa.

According to the state, Kudzayi is also facing charges of contravening the Firearms Act after detectives who raided his house and workplace discovered 13 rounds of ammunition unsecured.

At his home where he resides with his parents, four by 9 millimetre rounds of ammunition were recovered placed on top of a table while at his Sunday Mail office another team of police officers discovered 9 by 9 millimetres round of ammunition from the desk draw that was not locked.

He is also facing charges of publishing or communicating falsehoods prejudicial to the state.

Before being appointed, a brief check of his history, Kudzayi once wrote an article on 7 August 2008, in which he described President Mugabe as a tyrant' who had stolen the 2008 elections, which the state is using as evidence against him.

Through his website in 2010, African Aristocrat which has now been pulled down ran an exclusive story saying Bona, the president's only daughter had been gang-raped by a group of Tanzanian students.