'Deleted CCTV exonerates me,’ says Rushwaya

A CENTRAL Intelligence Organisation operative who is implicated in suspended Zimbabwe Miners Federation president Henrietta Rushwaya's gold smuggling case yesterday told magistrate Ngoni Nduna that the deleted CCTV video footage of the events leading to his arrest was the one which could have exonerated him from the case.

Stephen Chenjerai Tserayi, in his submissions for application for bail through lawyer Admire Rubaya, accused police officers of dragging him into the gold smuggling case with baseless accusations when the deleted CCTV footage would have exonerated him.

"If the CCTV footage was destroyed or interfered with as alleged by the police, why haven't they arrested those manning the CCTV footage control room, especially considering that the investigating officer, who testified in court, conceded that the control room is accessible via biometric," he said.

Rubaya stated that as someone trained in security systems, his client was convinced that the police were relying on an analogue CCTV video footage which was easy to manipulate, after the one which exonerated him was interfered with.

He said the State had a weak case against Tserayi, hence there was no reason to oppose bail.

"The State has no evidence before the court and should contemplate to withdraw its case against my client. The State alleges smuggling in relation to my client, yet there is no concession that he intended to leave the country," he said.

Rushwaya and Tserayi are jointly charged with Pakistani businessman Ali Muhammad, Raphios Mufandauya and Gift Karanda for smuggling, illegal possession of gold, criminal abuse of office and defeating the course of justice.

Tserayi insisted that he was not aware of the contents of Rushwaya's bag, therefore, he could not be linked to the gold smuggling offence.

Mufandauya and Karanda will file their written submissions on bail application tomorrow.