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Court grills Biti

by Staff reporter
14 Jun 2022 at 17:20hrs | Views
Harare magistrate Mrs Vongai Guwuriro-Muchuchuti yesterday ruled that Tendai Biti be given two sessions on June 28 to finish up his application for referral of his assault case to the Constitutional Court.

The first session will start at 11:15 am and the other one at 2:15 pm.

Senior prosecutor Mr Michael Reza told the court that proceedings in the matter have been stalled by numerous excuses at the instigation of Biti and his lawyer Mr Alec Muchadehama since 2020.

However, the magistrate ruled that Biti must not submit evidence that is irrelevant in his application for referral of his assault case to the Constitutional Court.

Biti through his lawyer submitted that his rights were infringed from the day he was arrested.

In the previous sitting, senior prosecutor, Mr Michael Reza had told the court that Biti's reasons for the application had absolutely nothing to do with the assault case.

Mrs Guwuriro-Muchuchuti ruled that it is now a Constitutional Court requirement that an applicant must submit oral evidence on what Constitutional rights he claims were infringed.

She said a court cannot stop the accused from submitting these.

"Since the lower courts do not have the power to set time frames within which an accused must make his submissions, and only superior courts have that right, the state also applied that the accused be given limited time to make his submissions," said Mrs Guwuriro-Muchuchuti.

The court concurred with the state that the accused must not submit evidence that is irrelevant.

"The court will therefore be guiding the accused whenever he submits evidence that is irrelevant," Guwuriro ruled.

During the previous sitting, Mr Reza told the court that Biti was trying to bring in politics and political names in an assault case, which is irrelevant.

"This is a purely criminal case but the accused wants to bring in politics where it doesn't fit," Reza said as he underscored that the court is not a political field.

Tendai Biti is facing charges of manhandling a Zimbabwean investor Mrs Tatiana Aleshina at the Magistrates Court.

Source - The Herald