MDC trio bail conditions relaxed

Harare (New Ziana) – The High Court on Wednesday relaxed bail conditions for the three MDC-Alliance activists Joanna Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova who are facing charges of communicating falsehoods and faking their own abductions.

The three were arrested in June and were subsequently granted $10 000 bail each by the High Court, which also ordered them to report thrice a week to the police.

“Justice Mushore relaxed the bail reporting conditions after Jeremiah Bamu and Paida Saurombe of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights asked the court to alter these taxing conditions which were keeping the trio at police stations,” their lawyers said.

“The trio is (now) reporting once a week after we asked the High Court to relax these arduous conditions.”

Allegations against the trio are that on May 13 this year, at around 12.30 pm, they gathered at Choppies Supermarket in Warren Park 1 with other MDC-Alliance youths and staged a demonstration against the recalling of their MPs from Parliament and the alleged misuse of funds for the Covid-19 pandemic by the government.

On the same day, they allegedly called their friends, family and lawyers, saying they had been arrested at a roadblock near the Exhibition Park and were taken to Harare Central Police Station.

Upon receiving the communication, their lawyer Bamu reportedly went to the police Criminal Investigation Department Law and Order section.

Bamu is alleged to have approached a senior officer, saying the accused had been arrested and taken to Harare Central Police Station.

According to the State, checks were made and it was established that the trio were neither arrested nor abducted.

Two days later, Bamu went to the police and told them that the trio had been found in Bindura.

The police accompanied him to Bindura where they found the trio and took them to a private hospital in the capital.

New Ziana