LEGENDARY South African lawyer, George Bizos on Saturday made a surprise appearance at war veterans spokesperson, Douglas Mahiya’s bail hearing at the Harare Magistrate’s Court, where he expressed shock at the country’s justice delivery system.
The high profile attorney is renowned for representing the late anti-apartheid icon, Nelson Mandela in his treason trial in 1963 to 1964. Through his efforts, Mandela and his co-accused were spared death penalties, which were commuted to life imprisonment.
The Greek-born legal representative was also hired by MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai when he was fighting to clear himself of charges of planning a coup by conspiring to assassinate President Robert Mugabe before the 2002 general elections. Tsvangirai was acquitted of the charges.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) chairperson, Beatrice Mtetwa said there was nothing untoward about the presence of Bizos and a group of top regional lawyers at Mahiya’s court appearance.
Mahiya is being charged with undermining the authority of or insulting President Robert Mugabe after he is said to have authored a damning communiqué, which accused the Zimbabwean leader of dictatorial tendencies and further said war veterans had withdrawn their support for the veteran leader.
Mahiya was remanded in custody to today for bail ruling.
“We had a meeting of board members of Freedom Under Law, a regional law-based (non-govermental organisation) NGO registered in South Africa,” she said.
“We were having our board meeting in Harare and just to show solidarity to human rights, they thought they must just come and observe.”
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There were reports ZLHR, which is representing Mahiya in his case, had invited the expertise of the experienced lawyer to assist Mahiya’s defence.
But Mtetwa denied this saying: “Nothing is brewing. It was also for them to see how our justice system works here,” she said.
Bizos was in the company of ZLHR officials and some top lawyers from countries in the region.
Asked how they found Mahiya’s court hearing, Mtetwa said the lawyers were shocked.
“They were absolutely shocked about the reasons for opposing bail and they were even more shocked by the magistrate allowing this person to spend two more nights in custody.” — newzimbabwe.com
