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Finance ministry fraud saga: Bail judgment reserved

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HIGH Court judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu yesterday reserved judgment on a bail application filed by two suspects accused of swindling the Ministry of Finance of over $700 000.

HIGH Court judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu yesterday reserved judgment on a bail application filed by two suspects accused of swindling the Ministry of Finance of over $700 000.

BY CHARLES LAITON

Christopher Kumisai and Felix Rimaunga filed the application through their lawyer Advocate Lewis Uriri instructed by Tungamirai Chakurira.

Uriri argued that there was an “improper differentiation of accused persons in similar circumstances” in that eight of the 14 suspected fraudsters in the same matter had already been admitted to bail.

He also argued that his clients were proper candidates for bail given that they did not have any pending cases except for previous convictions as opposed to some of their co-accused persons that had been admitted to bail, but with pending cases, citing one Tonderai Musekiwa as an example.

“Tonderai Musekiwa is alleged to have committed this offence at a time when he was on remand on two different matters.

Notwithstanding his cases, he was admitted to bail by this court,” Uriri argued. “They face the same charge and the same allegations. The State has not made specific allegations against the accused persons, but has just lumped them together.”

In response, prosecutor Edmore Makoto urged the court to dismiss the appeal, adding the circumstances under which the two men had been denied bail had not changed.

Makoto said the State was considering that the two men had previous convictions and as such, were capable of committing offences of a similar nature if released on bail.

Kumisai and Rimaunga are accused of having acted in cahoots with Finance ministry employees to defraud the government of $729 345.

Allegations against the two are that sometime in December last year, they tendered fake invoices to the Accountant-General’s Office for payment.

The State alleges that they submitted names of non-existent firms as follows Nico Orgo (Pvt) Limited and Pioneer Hibred (Pvt) Limited through which payment was later sought for jobs they purported to have done.