Harare Magistrate Vongai Muchuchuti has fined prominent opposition figure Tendai Biti US$300 for verbally assaulting Russian businesswoman Tatiana Aleshina in 2020.
Biti was found guilty of using abusive language towards Aleshina, calling her a “very stupid, stupid stupid idiot” during the incident.
Magistrate Muchuchuti stated that Biti’s actions displayed a failure to manage his emotions and expressed concern that he might repeat such behavior in the future.
The charges stem from an incident that occurred at Harare Magistrates Court on the 30th of November 2020 when the former Finance Minister shouted at state witness (Tatiana Aleshina) in the S V George Katsimberis fraud case.
Biti, representing George Katsimberis, is alleged to have charged at the complainant pointing his finger and shouting at the top of his voice that the witness was a “very stupid, stupid stupid idiot”.
The case was brought to court on the 8th of December 2020 when Biti was initially remanded for assault and judgement was handed down on Monday. The case took too long to be finalised as Biti made numerous interlocutory applications during the trial.
Biti made three applications asking the Prosecutor Michael Reza to recuse himself from the case. He also made a couple of applications seeking the recusal of the Magistrate.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said Biti “applied to the High Court on a number of occasions in a bid to overturn the ruling of the court whenever the Magistrate made a ruling in favour of the State.
“At some point, the trial was stayed, pending the hearing of one review application. The accused person’s seemingly litigious numerous applications before the court prolonged the trial but are permissible in terms of the law.
“The law provides for an accused person to assert his rights by means of an application to the Magistrate that he is appearing before. If he is aggrieved by the court’s decision, he is allowed to make an application for review of the Magistrate’s decision to the High Court.
“Where the accused person is not satisfied with the High Court’s decision, he can appeal to the Supreme Court,” the NPA added.
