HIGH Court Judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu on Tuesday 10 November 2009 once again postponed to Wednesday 11 November 2009 delivery of his ruling in an application in which Attorney General (AG) Johannes Tomana is seeking to strike out Deputy Agriculture Minister Designate Roy Bennett’s defence outline.
Justice Bhunu will also deliver a ruling in an application in which Bennett’s lawyers Beatrice Mtetwa and Trust Maanda want Peter Michael Hitschman’s purported evidence struck out of the State summary because it is prejudicial, inadmissible and non-existent evidence.
Mtetwa also wants Justice Bhunu to consider the inclusion by Tomana of Hitschman’s statement in the State summary without advising the court that this statement was contradicted in the man’s trial as unethical conduct and gross abuse of the prosecutorial powers of the AG which should be investigated.
Justice Bhunu’s Clerk on Monday afternoon informed Bennett’s lawyers that he was ready with his judgment which would be delivered on Tuesday 10 November at 11 :00 am.
But a court orderly on Tuesday advised the court when it had already sat that Justice Bhunu would now deliver his ruling on Wednesday as earlier advised by the Judge on Monday 09 November.
The court orderly did not give any reasons for the postponement but Mtetwa indicated that Justice Bhunu was “making some final touches to his decision.”
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
