High Court Judge Justice Munamato Mutevedzi has dismissed an appeal filed by 74 opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) activists, including former Member of Parliament Jameson Timba, against the denial of bail by Magistrate Ruth Moyo.
The judge upheld the magistrate’s decision, resulting in the continued detention of the 74 CCC activists.
However, one accused individual, Maxwell Sande, who is below the age of 18 years, was released into the custody of his father, Cecil Sande.
The CCC activists have been in detention since 16 June 2024 when they were arrested at Timba’s house in Avondale, Harare, and charged with holding an unlawful gathering to plan anti-government protests.
In his ruling delivered virtually, Justice Munamato Mutevedzi said:
In the end, all having been said and done, my conclusion is that there was no misdirection in the court a quo overall assessment of the issues and its finding that the appellants were not proper candidates for admission to bail.
As stated earlier the only appellant for whom the appeal can succeed is Maxwell Sande because of his age.
That I may have determined the matter differently is a non-issue. What is material is that I didn’t find any misdirection in the decision of the magistrates court.
The discretion of the trial magistrate, which as demonstrated, she exercised quite judiciously must stand. It disbars me from interfering with her judgment…
The appeal against the refusal to admit appellants one (1)- forty-two (42) and forty-four (44) to seventy-five (75) to bail by the Magistrates’ Court sitting at Harare on 27 June 2024 be and is hereby dismissed in its entirety.
This is an appeal against the decision of the Magistrates’ Court sitting at Harare refusing all the seventy- four (74) appellants admission to bail. The decision was delivered on 27 June 2024.
The demographics of the appellants are interesting. They were not a random assembly. Instead, they hail from different but clearly defined clusters predominantly the suburbs of Chitungwiza, Epworth and Hatcliffe which account for almost three-quarters of the appellants.
Equally noteworthy is the fact that fifty-seven of the appellants are not formally employed and that over sixty of them are aged below forty years.
They are of the same political persuasion having all admitted their affiliation to a political outfit called the CCC.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said it will “continue to explore legal options to assert the right to liberty” of the detained opposition activists.
More: Pindula News