JAILED Zanu PF central committee member Mike Chimombe and his associate Moses Mpofu will be back in court tomorrow before Justice Pisirayi Kwenda, where they will launch a fresh bid for freedom following their conviction for fraud.
Chimombe and Mpofu were sentenced to 12 and 17 years in prison, respectively.
On December 29 last year, their lawyers applied for leave to appeal against both conviction and sentence, arguing that the High Court misdirected itself in finding them guilty when the essential elements of fraud had not been proved.
“In convicting the appellant of the offence of fraud as a 'co-perpetrator' with his co-accused, the court a quo erred in law and misdirected itself in that its finding that the appellant had the requisite mens rea (guilty mind) to commit the offence was irrational in that no reasonable court, applying its mind to the totality of the evidence, could ever have found that the appellant had the requisite mens rea,” Chimombe’s lawyers submitted.
In submitting the third ground of appeal, Chimombe went further saying the court ended up creating its own charges, that were not part of the State’s submission before it.
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“In respect of ground of appeal 3, the court went on a frolic of its own as it abandoned the main thrust of the charge and focused its attention on what it called the stealing of the corporate identity of Blackdeck (Private) Limited,” Chimombe submitted.
His lawyers said the effective 12-year prison sentence was too harsh and induced a sense of shock on their client.
“The court a quo improperly exercised its discretion in respect of sentence in that the sentence it imposed of an effective 12 years imprisonment plus restitution, is so manifestly excessive and so disturbingly inappropriate in all the circumstances of this case as not only to induce a sense of shock but also as an instance of an exercise in irrationality.”
The court set January 7, for hearing the application for leave to appeal against its ruling at the Supreme Court. If granted, the two will proceed to place their appeal at the Supreme Court.
If leave is not granted, the two will have to appeal the decision at the Supreme Court.