Court issues warning over delays in corruption cases. A significant number of former Government strongmen have been arrested on charges of criminal abuse of office since the campaign against corruption started in Zimbabwe three years ago, but hardly any of the trials have been concluded with many of the accused using an array of legal processes, usually in the form of applications or appeals to the High Court, to delay prosecution.
Courts must expedite criminal trials in high-profile corruption cases, as delays have the potential to put the judiciary and criminal justice system into disrepute, a High Court judge has noted when rejecting an application stopping a prosecution.
However, Justice Tawanda Chitapi said the delays in completing the cases have the consequence of having the courts and the Prosecutor-General’s Office being perceived as lacking the resolve to speedily dispose of cases before the courts.
He made the remarks on Friday while dismissing an application for permanent stay of prosecution by former Minister of State for Midlands Provincial Affairs Jason Machaya, former Mashonaland West provincial administrator Cecilia Chitiyo, and six other senior Government employees.
Machaya (65), Chitiyo (50), Matilda Manhambo (59), Sherpard Marweyi (48), Sifelani Moyo (59), Ethel Mlalazi (65), Chisainyerwa Chibhururu (47) and Everest Nyamadzawo (33) are facing charges of criminal abuse of office.
The eight are accused of acting with a common purpose and unlawfully approving layout plans, grabbing over 11 000 stands owned by the State through the Local Government Ministry, disposing of commonage stands and other related acts in ways contrary to Government policy.
They lost a bid to stop their prosecution at the Magistrates Court on the grounds that a decade had passed between the alleged offences and the trial, before approaching the High Court seeking a review of the decision of Gweru regional magistrate Mrs Sibongile Msipa-Marondedze.
In dismissing the application for permanent stay of prosecution by Machaya and his co-accused, Justice Chitapi ruled that no case had been established to warrant such a stay.
He said the prosecution of the crime is a matter of public interest, hence order of permanent stay of prosecution constituted a serious interference with the public interest by conferring immunity on the accused from prosecution.
“It is accordingly ordered that the application be and it is hereby dismissed with no order of costs,” he said before ordering that the trial should continue either before Mrs Msipa-Marondedze or any other magistrate.
Justice Chitapi said granting the suspects the relief they sought would result in the non-prosecution of the suspects on charges for which they were arrested and brought before the trial court.
“In other words, if the application were granted, the charges die a natural death by order of permanent stay of proceedings or prosecution,” he said. It was the court’s finding that the order sought was outside the jurisdiction of the trial magistrate because the magistrate’s court’s jurisdiction is limited to what is provided for in the Magistrate Court Act.
The judge also said the order sought would, in essence, have amounted to prohibiting the Prosecutor General from performing his constitutional duty of instituting a prosecution.
The suspects’ main argument was that there was a lengthy and prejudicial delay between the dates of the alleged commission of the offence and the time of their arrest and prosecution.
They argued that the trial magistrate did not consider whether a delay of more than 10 years in investigating offences in the public domain and bringing charges violates the right to a trial within a reasonable time in terms of the Constitution.
At the heart of that question was the issue whether this provision of the law is confined to the period post the charge. The ruling paves way for continuation of the trial. The charges they stand accused of are serious as they constitute acts of corruption.
Heavy penalties that range from a fine not exceeding level 13 or imprisonment not exceeding 15 years or both, are provided for each offence upon conviction.
Source – The Herald
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