INCARCERATED Sunday Mail editor, Edmund Kudakwashe Kudzayi, has challenged the State to prove that he was behind the eerie Facebook character, Baba Jukwa.
SENIOR COURT REPORTER
Kudzayi said the State must engage Facebook owner Mark Zuckerburg and his firm to ascertain the Internet protocol address (IP) of the real person who set up the account as well as its administrators.
In his bail application which will be heard at the High Court today, Kudzayi through his lawyer Admire Rubaya said he was being incriminated by the State using information that he provided after being requested to do so by the Defence ministry.
He further argued that the gmail account which was created for the administration of Baba Jukwa’s Facebook account was set up while he was in the United Kingdom.
He also said the Econet line which was allegedly used to open the gmail account, had not been acquired by his brother then.
“It is of critical importance to note that the State in clause 3 of the Annexure to the form 242 alleges that the accused (Kudzayi) created a gmail account called [email protected] using an Econet line 0771 446 541. What it presupposes is that the line was activated by Econet before Baba Jukwa Facebook page was set up,” Kudzayi said.
“According to publicly accessible information on Facebook, Baba Jukwa joined Facebook on March 22 2013 of which accused was in the United Kingdom. Further, the line in question was allocated to accused’s brother who only played a role of providing an identification document to acquire the line from Econet, but never used it, sometime on or about the June 7 2013.”
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The computer guru further said accessing Econet records would simply show when the line was activated and even the call records would show when it was used by Kudzayi.
“Thus if the line in question is the basis of the creation of Baba Jukwa then that would be a miracle as at the time the Baba Jukwa page was set up that line was not yet activated in the Econet system and accused was not using the line in question in the United Kingdom and he did not know if it existed. Even his brother Phillip had not acquired it yet,” he said in the High court application.
“The State should have approached information technology experts first or should have investigated through enquiries from Google and Facebook.”
Kudzayi said he only became aware of the Baba Jukwa issue when he was called upon by Environment, Water and Climate minister Saviour Kasukuwere to assess and make an overview of the information provided by a hacker called Kennedy brought by Herbert Huruva, to see if it was of any value which related to hacking of Baba Jukwa’s gmail account.
He further said Kasukuwere later referred him to Information minister Jonathan Moyo and together with the said hacker had a meeting only related to the hacking of the Baba Jukwa’s account.
“Further what the police allege to have investigated, is something they actually got from the accused who supplied them with the relevant information through Assistant Commissioner Chrispen Makedenge,” Kudzayi said.
“The accused is now perplexed that he is being falsely incriminated yet the investigating officer knows very well that his involvement in the matter related to hacking the Baba Jukwa account in consultation with the Defence ministry not that he is Baba Jukwa as is being portrayed by the State in its papers.”
Responding to allegations of insulting President Robert Mugabe, Kudzayi said: “The article which the police allege to have is a computer-generated document which could have been fabricated by any other person who just inserted accused’s names . . . he (Kudzayi) knows that the President of Zimbabwe is not a dictator or a tyrant but is a democrat par excellence.”
Meanwhile, Kudzayi’s brother, Phillip appeared at the Harare Magistrates Court yesterday facing similar charges and was remanded in custody to July 7.
