High Court judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu has convicted three MDC-T members of murder! Collins Dictionary defines murder as “premeditated killing”.
By A Mbire,Our Reader
Does anyone believe that these three colluded in picking up a stone and throwing it at the hapless police officer? One stone!
He/she must have been a top baseball pitcher to have accomplished that — or it was a freak accident, in legal parlance in Britain, it would be no more than “death by misadventure”.
Even stretching the law to claim these activists are guilty of murder by association, with the State leading no evidence that they were actively involved in the throwing of the stone, is a travesty of justice.
For the judge to rule that the State had proved beyond reasonable doubt that these three people colluded to throw the stone with actual intent to kill the officer is asking the population to believe the ridiculous.
We need to remember that some 28 people were initially incarcerated over this offence and denied bail. One even died in prison. Then 21 of them were released as not guilty. How can the State and any magistrate incarcerate so many people over the throwing of one stone?
By the same token, the policemen who threw teargas into those flats in Bulawayo and killed the toddler are guilty of murder, as their action was without doubt premeditated.
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It is high time that law enforcers considered very carefully their actions before arresting and denying bail to people who are going to be proven innocent.
There have been just far too many cases of incarceration of innocents and prosecution without convictions, since the rise of opposition parties for the State to have any claim to upholding the laws of justice.
A recent case in point is the arrest and incarceration of those who were arrested for the violence that erupted in both Bulawayo and Harare. Many were innocent passersby or not even there and bail was set at such a high level that many could not afford.
