Trial of MDC-trio postponed

Harare(New Ziana) – The trial of three MDC Alliance activists, who are facing charges of communicating falsehoods, which was supposed to commence on Wednesday, has been postponed to next month.

The three, former Harare East Member of Parliament Joana Mamombe and activists Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova, are being accused of lying to the police about being abducted by state security agents in May.

“The trial of MDC-trio has been postponed to 15 September to allow the State to provide the accused persons with more information in order to adequately prepare for their trial,” the trio’s legal representative the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said.

Allegations against the trio arose after they gathered at Choppies Supermarket in Warren Park 1 with other MDC-Alliance youths and staged a demonstration against the recalling of their party’s MPs from Parliament and the alleged misuse of funds for the Covid-19 pandemic by Government.

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

Upon receiving the communication, their lawyer Jeremiah 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.

The State alleges that the three were never abducted but staged it to soil the name and reputation of government.
New Ziana