'Baba Jukwa' fined $150 on ammunition charge

SUNDAY MAIL editor Edmund Kudzayi, who is currently fighting to clear himself on terrorism charges in the courts, was Monday convicted and fined for a lesser charge of failing to secure ammunition.

Kudzayi was fined US$150 by Harare magistrate Tendai Mahwe after he pleaded guilty to contravening Section 28(2) of the Firearms Act (Chapter 10:09), which deals with failure to secure ammunition which was in his custody.

The scribe, also an IT expert, was arrested in June this year and charged with attempted terrorism, insurgency and banditry.

He was, together with his brother Philip, accused of being the character face behind an anonymous Facebook blogger who refers himself as Baba Jukwa and claimed to be a mole in President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party.

When detectives visited his Harare home and workplace to arrest him, they stumbled upon unsecured rounds of ammunition, which they piled on his terrorism charges.

During mitigation, Kudzayi, through his lawyers, pleaded for lesser punishment when he had failed to secure the 13 rounds of ammunition when he had left his bedroom for routine prayers outside his house.

"He had gone to pray like any normal human being," his lawyer Edmund Rubaya later told NewZimbabwe.com, adding, "We raised issues like 'he is only a young man and is an IT expert' while seeking a lesser sentence."

The State went on to forfeit the ammunition.

Kudzayi's paying of the fine means he can now concentrate on more pressing charges of terrorism, which carry a life sentence if found guilty.

The brothers are currently out on stringent bail conditions are due to return to court October 3 for their routine remand.

They both however, vehemently deny the charge, which the State says was equal to "subverting the constitutional government".

Kudzayi claims he was actually helping the security services track down the administrators of the Facebook page.

The scandal sucked in two cabinet ministers, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo and his Environment Water and Climate counterpart Saviour Kasukuwere who were questioned by police in connection with the case.