Mubaiwa seeks bail at High Court

Harare(New Ziana)-Marry Mubaiwa, the estranged wife of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, on Wednesday approached the High Court seeking to be released on bail in the case in which she is being accused of attempting to murder her husband.

Mubaiwa also filed an appeal against the decision by the magistrates court to deny her bail in the other cases in which she stands accused of externalising foreign currency, money laundering and fraud.

The Harare magistrates court on Monday denied Mubaiwa bail on the foreign currency externalisation, money laundering and fraud charges on the grounds that she was a flight risk.

Magistrate Crispen Mberewere advised her to apply for bail at the High Court in the case where she is accused of attempting to kill Vice President Chiwenga sometime this year when he was admitted in a South African hospital.

Mubaiwa was arrested at the weekend by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, allegedly for externalising over US$1 million, and fraudulently attempting to solemnise her marriage without the consent of her husband.

She allegedly externalised the money to South Africa, under false import pretences, but instead used the funds to acquire an expensive house, and two top of the range cars.

In the fraud charge, she is accused of attempting to solemnise her marriage to Vice President Chiwenga without his consent, and this is suspected to be at the time her husband was bedridden.

Vice President Chiwenga had been unwell for much of this year, and was admitted to hospitals in South Africa, India and China, and returned home from lengthy treatment in Beijing early this month.

The state told the court that on one of her visits to her husband’s hospital ward, Mubaiwa asked his security aides to leave the couple alone, and used the privacy to tamper with the medical equipment on which Vice President Chiwenga, who was gravely ill, depended on.

According to the state, the intention was to harm her husband.

The High Court did not set down dates when it will hear both the appeal and the fresh application for bail on the attempted murder charge.

New Ziana