Ngarivhume to spend more time in jail as prosecutors stall on his appeal

HARARE – The High Court on Tuesday postponed the hearing of an appeal by jailed opposition leader Jacob Ngarivhume after the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) deliberately failed to file its response on time.

Ngarivhume who leads the Transform Zimbabwe party was convicted for calling for a nationwide protest dubbed “July 31 Movement” in response to cost of living and fuel hikes in 2020.

He was sentenced to four years over the offence but is serving three years effective after part of his jail term was suspended conditionally.

Ngarivhume is appealing against his conviction and sentence saying the lower court magistrate Feresi Chakanyuka was wrong in convicting him.

High Court judge justice Pisirayi Kwenda and Benjamin Chikowero were expected to preside over the appeal hearing but the state indicated that they were not aware of the set down date.

However Ngarivhume’s lawyer Professor Lovemore Madhuku said he had filed his clients appeal application a long time ago but the state indicated that they had not responded to the application since they were not aware of the application.

“We are making very clear arguments. We think that our client has reasonable prospects that the conviction was wrong.

“You will recall that the only reason why the magistrate convicted him was that he did not disclose at the time of questioning by the police that he did not have a twitter account …that the sole issue, they said why did you not say it the first time you were interviewed by the police.

“We are saying that is wrong. A person is permitted not to say anything to the police when they are arrested… it is going to evolve around that important point,” Madhuku said.

The constitutional law lecturer said Ngarivhume committed no crime saying the state also failed to provide evidence that he owns the Twitter account that he is alleged to have used to commit the offence.

Madhuku said they will also be seeking recusal of judge, Benjamin Chikowero on grounds that he turned down his application for bail pending appeal.

“He dismissed the application for bail pending appeal.

“When he dismissed that application he made an opinion that there were no reasonable prospects of success so obviously we would need another judge because he already has something to show that the appeal will not be successful,” said Madhuku said after the court appearance.