ADVOCATE Charles Warara, who privately prosecuted Munyaradzi Kereke’s rape case, yesterday accused then chief law officer Morgan Dube of allowing former Prosecutor-General Johannes Tomana to hijack and delay the trial of the jailed former Bikita West legislator.
BY MARY TARUVINGA
Kereke’s case only went to trial early this year after the matter was reported in 2010 as Kereke allegedly kept shifting the goalposts and objecting to have the matter prosecuted.
“Dube went on to swear in his affidavit saying the then PG was responsible for the convicted Zanu PF legislator’s trial delay, but deliberately ignored stating how the set-down department in the PG’s Office got involved in a matter being handled by the police. Precisely something unlawful was done by the PG,” he said.
Warara went on to say Kereke must not insist on blaming Tomana as he was the one who benefited.
“The PG’s Office declined to prosecute a matter which was illegally before them and the court must not let senior government officials get away with such crimes. This was clearly a case of corruption and if it was just another old man from Chiundura accused of raping a minor, would the PG have interfered? It’s clearly a glaring wrong conduct. The accused is a beneficiary of the corruption and could have probably forced the situation so he must be punished.”
Dube last week blamed Tomana for the delay after the court sought his opinion on who should foot the trial costs.
Acting PG Ray Goba also said Tomana must testify personally before the court.
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However, Tomana did not turn up to testify yesterday.
Kereke was last month convicted and sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment for raping his then 10-year-old niece at gunpoint in 2010.
Following his conviction, Warara applied for compensation of legal costs from Kereke or Tomana arguing that the two connived to block prosecution for five years. Magistrate Noel Mupeiwa will deliver his ruling on Friday.
