Sixty-five Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) activists, including former party senator Jameson Timba, were denied bail for the third time by the Harare Magistrates Court on Monday.
Magistrate Collet Ncube ruled that there were no changed circumstances justifying the release of the activists, who were arrested on June 16, 2024.
Lawyer Webster Jiti, representing the accused, said that they will appeal the magistrate’s ruling in the High Court. Said Jiti:
The basis of the application was that there is now a lapse of considerable time since the accused persons were put behind bars and bearing in mind that we have at least 65 witnesses going to the defence case it will take us several months to complete the trial.
The seriousness of their offence has been alleviated by the collapse of the other charge, so we thought they had a better chance of getting bail.
Obviously we will challenge the correctness of the ruling at the High Court.
The CCC activists were recently acquitted on a charge of disorderly conduct in a public place leaving them facing one final charge of holding an unlawful gathering.
The 65 are part of the initial 79 activists who were arrested at Timba’s home in Avondale, Harare while commemorating International Youth Day.
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