ARTUZ leader and ED coup challenger fight ‘trumped up charges’
Harare magistrate Daniel Mangosi has denied applications for further remand for President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s coup challenger Sybeth Musengezi and Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Obert Masaraure.
Masaraure (37) was arrested on Tuesday accused of murder in what his lawyer said was a “classic case of trumped up charges.”
He is accused over the 2016 death of colleague Roy Issa, who was all along assumed to have jumped to his death from a seventh-floor window of the Jameson Hotel in Harare.
In another case, the same magistrate dismissed an application for further remand for Musengezi who is facing charges of misrepresenting his home address to his party, Zanu-PF. He is out of custody on bail.
Allegations are that, sometime in 2012, Musengezi, acting in connivance with Allen Chisuko and Taurai Mutimbanyoka, misrepresented to Zanu-PF that he resided at House Number 4315 Hatcliffe Extension, Harare.
The State said, as a result of this alleged misrepresentation, Musengezi “fraudulently” became a member of the ruling party’s Muzinda 1A District.
In Musengezi’s case, magistrate Mangosi ruled that “this court can not review its own decisions. Accordingly, the application has been dismissed.”
Masaraure who was also challenging placement on remand was further remanded out of custody to 1 July 2022 pending indictment.
Both the accused are represented by human rights lawyer Douglas Coltart.
Musengezi last year dragged Mnangagwa to the High Court challenging a November 19, 2017 Zanu-PF central committee meeting that elected him as the party leader following a military coup that ousted former leader Robert Mugabe.
Last month, Harare magistrate, Yeukai Dzuda granted Musengezi ZWL20 000 bail and ordered a cocktail of bail conditions which included surrendering of his passport.
