Man (32) in court for kidnapping boy (9)

Isa Linje (32), a general worker at Antony Farm in Westgate appeared in court charged with kidnapping a boy (9) and locking him in a wooden cabin before he escaped.

Linje was not asked to plead when he appeared before regional magistrate Mr Daniel Shonhiwa who remanded him in custody to July 26 this year.

He was advised to apply for bail at the High Court.

The complainant is Blessing Mliwa (9) of Tynwald.

Prosecutor Mrs Valery Ngoma alleges that on July 8 this year the boy was coming from school going home on foot. He stopped at a railway crossing along Kirkman Road near Sanganai Inn to dust his shoes.

Linje and five others who are still at large, it is alleged, approached the complainant and ordered him to stop whatever he was doing.

The gang allegedly blindfolded the complainant and tied his legs before bundling him into the boot.
The boy was driven to Dzivarasekwa in the boot and when they arrived at a house in the surbub, it is alleged that the six took the complainant to a wooden cabin and removed the cloth that was covering his face.

They also untied him.

They gave the boy three choices, whether to be killed, stay with them or being dumped in a hole and the boy chose to stay with them, it is alleged.

The State says the boy managed to escape through a plastic paper at the back of the cabin and ran home where he narrated his ordeal to his father.

Efforts to locate the house proved fruitless, but on July 9 the boy identified Linje who was milling around their house.