By SIMBARASHE SITHOLE
THREE Zanu PF youths were arraigned before Bindura Magistrates Courts yesterday facing charges of beating a suspected thief to death.
Zivanai Nyazvigodi (38), Alexio Kurai Gondo (26) and Naison Tandaude(31), all from Simoona Farm, were ordered by the High Court to answer to an assault charge after they were initially charged with murder.
The trio pleaded not guilty to the charge before magistrate Moreblessing Makati, who remanded them out of custody to Tuesday for trial.
Prosecutor Vincent Marunya alleged that on May 8 in 2008, and at Simoona Farm, police released the now deceased Nicholas Muringanidze after he had been arrested for stealing an electric motor.
On the same day, when the Zanu PF youths heard that the deceased had been released they teamed up with another suspect, who is still at large and went to Muringanidze’s homestead where they introduced themselves as Zanu PF youths before taking him to a disused house which they used as their headquarters.
The quartet ordered him to lie down and took turns to assault him on his buttocks until he admitted to the offence, leading to the recovery of the missing electric motor.
After assaulting him they took him back to the police station, but Maringanidze eventually died on October 7 of that year from injuries he had sustained.
