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The High Court of Zimbabwe has dismissed the bail application for Harare West legislator for MDC Alliance Joana Mamombe and MDC Alliance Youth leader Cecilia Chimbiri on conditions that it is not in the interest of justice to grant their appeal.
The two had appealed to the High Court for a bail pending trial under Justice Tawanda Chitapi.
MDC Alliance members were accused of breaching Covid-19 regulations after holding a press conference at the Harare Magistrates’ Court denouncing the arrest of the fellow political activist, Makomborero Haruzivishe.
However, the two are denying the allegation as they argued that they were only addressing the journalists who are regarded as the essentials during the covid 19 period.
This is another desparate attempt by the state to surpress the rights of the individuals.It baffles the mind whether this is about justice or more personal for the regime that has captured the state and justice delivery system.
Seriously enough is enough and it is time something gives yesterday it was former journalist Jestina Mukoko today it is Cecilia Chimbiri and Joanna Mamombe. Painful memories date back to the early hours of 13 December 2008 when a group of masked men and a woman hauled Jestina Mukoko from her bed, and under the terrified gaze of her teenage son, bundled her into an unmarked car and disappeared as fast as they had arrived.
Jestina Mukoko’s abduction, detention and torture in 2008, and the subsequent dropping of all charges by a full bench of Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court on 28 September 2009, is serving as a timeline in a country emerging from the depths of despair into the first glimmer of hope.
Mukoko, a single mother, journalist and human rights campaigner, became a cause célèbre for both local and international human rights organizations, with her personal ordeal seen as a representation of the state’s repression and its contempt for the rule of law.
The Supreme Court said in its judgment: “The court unanimously concludes that the state, through its agents, violated the applicant’s constitutional rights protected under the constitution of Zimbabwe to an extent entitling the applicant to a permanent stay of criminal prosecution associated with the above violations.”
Mukoko was charged with banditry, but many believe her work of collating the litany of human rights abuses committed against political activists, unionists and civil society members by President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF government – which held power before transition to a unity government then – ensured that she would occupy the same dank prisons and suffer the same beatings as those whose stories she had documented.
We see the same hand the same fingerprints the same calculated moves by a regime bent on denying rights to others to express their different opinions.
HARARE West lawmaker Joanna Mamombe and MDC Alliance activist Cecilia Chimbiri will remain in remand prison after their bail appeal has been turned down by the High Court judge, and many already see a lot of political meddling.
The judge concurred with Harare Magistrate Vongai Muchuchuti who earlier this month denied the two bail as they were likely to re-offend as they committed the latest offence while on bail for several criminal matters that are before the courts.
In dismissing the appeal, Chitapi said the two youth activists are defiant and stringent bail conditions will not deter them to commit more crimes.
“They did not deny addressing a gathering. I would say the accused showed an attitude of defiance and did not give an assurance or suggest any stringent conditions to bind them if released,” he said.
Chitapi said Mamombe is a legislator yet she is a serial criminal offender.
“I can’t say she is guilty, but it remains a fact she has not stopped engaging in activities that make her end up being charged for breaking the law,” he said.
However, their lawyer, Tendai Biti said they will exhaust all legal channels to ensure the two are granted bail.
“Obviously this is not fair and it’s the work of the regime. Maybe we will appeal at the Supreme Court or reapply at the lower court,” Biti told journalists after the judge’s ruling.
Mamombe and Chimbiri landed in the dock early this month following their arrest for breaching Covid-19 regulations. This was after they staged a demonstration at the Harare Magistrate’s Court calling for the immediate release of fellow MDC Alliance activist Makomborero Haruzivishe.
Haruzivishe is in remand prison facing charges of kidnapping and skipping attending court for other criminal charges he faces.
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