MDC Alliance duo granted Z$10 000 bail… fresh bail application for Alan Moyo (64 days in custody without trial)

By Nyashadzashe Ndoro | Nehanda Courts |

High Court Judge Justice Webster Chinamora finally ended the eight-day detention of opposition MDC Alliance duo, Harare West MP Joanah Mamombe and youth activist Cecilia Chimbiri who are facing “frivolous” charges of undermining the authority of the police.

The ruling by Justice Chinamora set aside Magistrate Stanford Mambanje’s judgement denying Mamombe and Chimbiri bail. He ordered the duo to pay Z$10 000 bail each and report at the police station once a fortnight.

Mamombe and are being charged with contravening section 177 of the Criminal Code that is undermining the authority of the police or alternatively contravening section 11 of SI 83 of 2020.

It is alleged they hindered or obstructed police officers during the performance of their national lockdown duties.

The duo was represented by Charles Kwaramba of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR).

After the ruling, Kwaramba said, “We were able to satisfy the court that the lower court misdirected itself. So the court agreed with us and granted bail to the two accused persons.”

Mamombe together with colleagues Chimbiri and Netsai Marova were arrested in May last year and charged with allegations of faking their abduction.

These allegations came regardless of the activists being taken by suspected state security agents from police cells, dumped in Bindura and found after four days with injuries on their bodies.

Meanwhile, a University of Zimbabwe student, Alan Moyo (23) has now spent 64 days of pre-trial incarceration at the country’s largest and most notorious jail, the Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison after being denied bail by both the Magistrate’s Court and High Court.

Insiders told Nehanda Radio that a fresh bail application has been filed at the Magistrate’s Court.