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Glen View 29 case deferred

Politics
THE 29 Glen View MDC-T activists who are on trial for the alleged murder of Police Inspector Petros Mutedza will know their fate on April 23

THE 29 Glen View MDC-T activists who are on trial for the alleged murder of Police Inspector Petros Mutedza will know their fate on April 23 this year when High Court judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu is expected to deliver a ruling on their application for discharge.

SENIOR COURT REPORTER

The matter failed to materialise yesterday after both the State and the defence agreed in Justice Bhunu’s chambers to file written submissions before the court delivers a judgment.

It was, however, agreed that the defence would file its application on Friday while the State would respond to it by next week and allow the court enough time to make a determination.

The activists, through their lawyers, indicated during the last hearing of the matter last month that the State had failed to prove a case against them after calling all the witnesses who gave evidence in court.

This followed the closure of the State case by prosecutor Edmore Nyazamba after the evidence of a Cuban pathologist, Aguero Gonzalez, who carried out a post-mortem on Mutedza’s body.

Five of the suspects — Tungamirai Madzokere, Yvonne Musarurwa, Rebecca Mafukeni, Last Maengahama and Simon Mapanzure — are still in custody.

In granting bail to the other activists early this year, Justice Bhunu said: “From the beginning of this case, the State case was premised on the fact that the accused persons were observed and positively identified while committing the crime by undercover police officers who were at Glen View shopping centre.”

But in the ruling, the court said it was tempted to rule throughout that the State had a strong case against the accused persons, but it later turned out that it had been misled by the investigating officer.

Bhunu further said while the inconsistences and misrepresentations did not relate to all the accused persons, they, however, “betrayed a set mind to deceive and mislead the court” on the part of the investigating officer.