HUMAN rights defender Beatrice Mtetwa yesterday said if it was true that she hindered the police from successfully completing their search at Thabani Mpofu’s house on March 17, then they would have continued with the search after her arrest. SENIOR REPORTER
Mtetwa, who was cross–examining Detective Sergeant Ngatirwe Mamiza in the case in which she is facing charges of obstructing the course of justice, said the police officer’s remarks that he was terrified of her did not make sense since he also accompanied her to the police station.
“I was now confused and afraid. Personally, I couldn’t continue (with the search) due to fear and panic,” Mamiza said and added that he was still afraid of the lawyer even after Mtetwa had been arrested.
“Even today I am still frightened of the accused.”
Mtetwa, however, told magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa that Mamiza’s claims of fear were unfounded since the two sat together in the back of a police truck that took her to the police station from Mpofu’s house in Westgate to his offices at 14 Bath Road.
But Mamiza said the only reason he sat with her was that he had no choice since there were only three police officers and the other two — Detective Assistant Inspector Wilfred Chibage and Chief Superintendent Luxmore Mukazhi — sat in the front of the vehicle.
Mamiza said during their search at the house, a group of people gathered at the gate, while some were looking out through two commuter omnibuses in a move that made the police officers panic.
“We all panicked, together with Chibage and Mukazhi especially because we didn’t know who the people who had gathered at the gate were,” he said. Mtetwa, however, said his sentiments contradicted the evidence given in court by Chibage and Mukazhi who had told the court they were taught during training to do their job regardless of any threat of danger.
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Asked to do a sketch plan showing the position of the crowd and the two kombis at the gate, Mamiza vehemently refused saying he feared that he may portray differently on paper what exactly happened even after he was instructed by the magistrate to do so.
“I am not good at drawing. I might draw and depict the wrong picture. I might mislead the court. I need to be on the ground,” he said. The trial continues today.
