Former Finance Minister Tendai Biti was on Tuesday given a wholly suspended six-month prison sentence and also ordered to pay a US$300 fine by Harare magistrate Vongai Guwuriro Muchuchuti following his conviction the previous day for verbal assault.
Biti (56), was on trial for calling a Russian national, Tatiana Aleshina “stupid” while leaving court in November 2020.
The former Harare East MP made the jibe after Aleshina had stood up from the public gallery to object to Biti’s line of argument in a criminal matter involving her boss Ken Sharpe, a controversial property tycoon.
Biti’s lawyer Alec Muchadehama told reporters they were “extremely disappointed but not surprised” with the court’s verdict. He said:
We are going to appeal both the conviction and sentence. By tomorrow (Wednesday) the appeal will have been filed.
The National Prosecuting Authority of Zimbabwe (NPAZ) confirmed Biti’s sentencing in a statement. It said:
Tendai Luxton Biti who was convicted at the Harare Magistrates Court yesterday afternoon has been sentenced.
The court has ordered him to pay a fine of USD300 forthwith. If he fails to pay the fine he will serve 6 months imprisonment.
A further 6 months have been wholly suspended on condition that the accused person does not commit a similar offence within 5 years.
According to ZimLive, Aleshina arrived in Zimbabwe in 1997. Her sister, Joanna, is married to Ken Sharpe.
Sharpe sparred with Biti in court in 2020 after the lawyer accused him of corruption in his acquisitions of vast tracts of land in Harare.
Commenting on Biti’s conviction and sentence, opposition politician David Coltart, who is also Bulawayo Mayor, said:
Let us be clear about one thing – the conviction and sentencing of Tendai Biti is not an indication that gender-based violence is being adequately addressed in Zimbabwe.
This was a political trial against a senior opposition politician accused of verbally assaulting a woman. Other senior government politicians have never been tried for far worse allegations.
Some have allegedly been responsible for women suffering major physical injuries including the loss of limbs.
Nothing has ever been done to bring those politicians to justice – indeed the courts have even facilitated some of these gross violations of rights.
Journalist and government critic Hopewell Chin’ono accused the ZANU PF-led government of abusing courts to persecute political opponents. He wrote on X:
The ridiculous conviction of Tendai Biti in the magistrate’s court by Vongai Guwuriro shows how far the ZANU PF regime is prepared to embarrassingly go in punishing its political adversaries using captured courts.
Unfortunately, this won’t end with Tendai Biti alone, anyone who is perceived to be a critic or political opponent of the regime will be punished using these political courts when the chance arises.
As Tendai Biti is sentenced today after FOUR years of going to court for this case, he should be prepared for anything because this regime hates him deeply, he could be sent to jail for supposedly calling someone stupid.
That is how low the bar has sunk in Zimbabwe after this regime took away any pretence of having a professional judiciary which rules based on the law, instead of being used as a persecution chamber for those opposed to ZANU PF corrupt rule and ZANU PF surrogates!
The use of the judiciary for political purposes undermines the rule of law and democracy.
Today it is Tendai, tomorrow it could be you!
More: Pindula News