News / National
Biti seeks magistrate's recusal amid bias suspicions
25 Apr 2022 at 16:34hrs | Views
Prominent Lawyer Tendai Biti on Friday made an application seeking the recusal of a regional magistrate Vongai Muchuchiti Guwuriro after sighting bias in a case which he stands as the accused.
Biti is facing allegations of assaulting Tatiana Aleshina, a Russian woman who is identified with Kenneth Sharpe's business empire.
Detailing the contents of his application on Friday, Biti said he hold no grudge against the magistrate but is in pursuit for the existence of justice in his case. Raised bias suspicions.
"I make this application with great respect to you. I do so with reasonable fears that justice will not be done. Justice has not be done to my case up to date. The issue is on the reasonable suspicion of bias and on that reason I ask you recuse yourself."
Some of the concerns raised by Biti include failure by the court to grant him the right to legal representation, previous rulings, incorrect transcripts and the events that took place since October 2021 among plethora of issues.
"The court holds a bias against me. I have been looking at court proceedings and most of the rulings made by the court were against me. The ruling to proceed trial without Mr Muchadehama my legal counsel. Your ruling had implications and one of these was to proceed without my lawyer. It is constitutional that I should have a lawyer. It pains me to be making this application."
"This court record is incomplete yet it has your signature written "certified and complete transcript". It doesn't cover the proceedings on 25 March 2022. On 25th October 2021 it misses a key aspect. Page 14 of the transcript is incorrectly numbered.
He also added that it now appearing that his relationship with the Magistrate is now adversarial and had been involved in a number legal battles on seven (7) platforms.
"You and I are now protagonists and we are now at adversity. This is not good. We can't be fighting on 7 platforms and expect you to be a super human. I can't expect justice to prevail from someone I am fighting with. This is nothing personal but it is a matter of justice."
The matter is expected to commence on 9 May 2022.
Biti is facing allegations of assaulting Tatiana Aleshina, a Russian woman who is identified with Kenneth Sharpe's business empire.
Detailing the contents of his application on Friday, Biti said he hold no grudge against the magistrate but is in pursuit for the existence of justice in his case. Raised bias suspicions.
"I make this application with great respect to you. I do so with reasonable fears that justice will not be done. Justice has not be done to my case up to date. The issue is on the reasonable suspicion of bias and on that reason I ask you recuse yourself."
Some of the concerns raised by Biti include failure by the court to grant him the right to legal representation, previous rulings, incorrect transcripts and the events that took place since October 2021 among plethora of issues.
"The court holds a bias against me. I have been looking at court proceedings and most of the rulings made by the court were against me. The ruling to proceed trial without Mr Muchadehama my legal counsel. Your ruling had implications and one of these was to proceed without my lawyer. It is constitutional that I should have a lawyer. It pains me to be making this application."
"This court record is incomplete yet it has your signature written "certified and complete transcript". It doesn't cover the proceedings on 25 March 2022. On 25th October 2021 it misses a key aspect. Page 14 of the transcript is incorrectly numbered.
He also added that it now appearing that his relationship with the Magistrate is now adversarial and had been involved in a number legal battles on seven (7) platforms.
"You and I are now protagonists and we are now at adversity. This is not good. We can't be fighting on 7 platforms and expect you to be a super human. I can't expect justice to prevail from someone I am fighting with. This is nothing personal but it is a matter of justice."
The matter is expected to commence on 9 May 2022.
Source - Byo24News
