Court acquits prosecutor over rape case controversy

The High Court has acquitted Chipinge Regional Prosecutor Timothy Tafadzwa Katsande of charges related to altering facts in a rape case involving a 13-year-old girl.

Justice Sijabuliso Siziba, sitting at the High Court in Mutare, quashed both Katsande's conviction and sentence. Katsande had previously been found guilty of defeating the course of justice by Mutare Provincial Magistrate Anne Ndiraya and sentenced to 12 months in prison, later commuted to 245 hours of community service.

Justice Siziba ruled that the State failed to prove that Katsande had the criminal intent necessary to obstruct justice. "Mistakes or poor professional judgment by prosecutors cannot automatically amount to a crime," the judge stated.

Katsande had been jointly charged with lawyer Benjamin Basikiti for allegedly preparing a statement of agreed facts in which a 13-year-old girl's sexual encounter with an adult male relative was wrongly described as consensual, resulting in a reduction of the charge from rape to sexual intercourse with a minor.

Basikiti was acquitted during the trial, and Katsande's conviction was overturned after the High Court concluded he did not intentionally misrepresent the facts, highlighting the importance of proving criminal intent in such cases.