Harare regional magistrate Clever Tsikwa is today expected to deliver judgment in an application for discharge by an Israeli pilot, Captain Shmuel Kainan Klein, accused of attempting to smuggle diamonds worth $2,4 million to South Africa.
Klein’s lawyer Jonathan Samukange made an application for discharge last week, arguing the State had failed to prove its case.
Samukange accused one of the investigating officers, Detective Sergeant Knowledge Kabasa, of being a suspect in the alleged theft of 2 140 carats of diamond seized from Klein at Harare International Airport last month.
Samukange made the remarks while cross-examining Kabasa, a detective with the Police Border Control Unit, stationed at the airport.
Klein told the court he was an agent of an Israeli diamond company, Masri Diamonds, and was authorised to possess the gems.
According to Klein, when police arrested him at the airport, he had 10 627 carats on him, but when the police issued an affidavit of the recovered gems, they claimed to have recovered 8 486 carats.
The State, however, maintained Klein disguised himself as a crew member on a South African Airways flight with the intention of smuggling the gems to South Africa after it emerged his passport had not been stamped by immigration officers on arrival into the country.
Meanwhile, an application by MDC-T spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora to have the matter in which he is being accused of defrauding prospective homeseekers referred to the Supreme Court was yesterday deferred to June 16.
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Mwonzora is seeking the intervention of the Supreme Court arguing the delays in bringing the matter to trial had contravened his constitutional rights.
He is facing charges of defrauding two Harare prospective homeseekers in 2009.
