Three policemen from the Criminal Investigation Department based in Zvishavane, due to appear before the Gweru High Court Circuit to answer to murder charges, are feared to have fled the country.
Report by Blessed Mhlanga
The three are accused of fatally assaulting a suspect who was in police custody.
Buthelezi Tshuma (28), Philip Matondora (25) and Jacob Mujeri (27) — who allegedly killed Josiah Mukwiri (37) in 2009 — were due to be tried during the just ended Gweru High Court Circuit, but the trial could not kick off as the police could not locate them for indictment.
Lawyer Vengai Masvaya, who was supposed to represent the three, confirmed to NewsDay that the case had been cancelled since his clients could not be located.
“I did not go to court because the three police detectives were not found ahead of trial. I have since sent all the paperwork to the prosecutor’s office,” he said.
It is the State case that on August 24 2009, management at a gold milling company, Rednight Milling, reported a case of gold theft to the police which was attended to by the three.
After investigations, they arrested the now deceased along with other suspects, Tarusenga Chikombe, Richard Majorobodo and Paul Hwata and detained them in police holding cells.
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It is alleged that the three took turns to assault the suspect with a blunt object in a bid to extract a confession.
After failing to get the confession, the officers then allegedly locked up Mukwiri and left him in police custody writhing in pain.
Mukwiri was found dead the following morning by other officers carrying out routine cell checks, leading to the arrest of Tshuma, Matondora and Mujeri. A post-mortem indicated that Mukwiri died as a result of a fracture on his cervical spinal cord and multiple injuries.