Magistrate Rejects Marry Mubaiwa's Request To Stay Prosecution Due To Health Issues
Harare Magistrate Feresi Chakanyuka has dismissed Vice President Constantino Chiwenga’s ex-wife, Marry Mubaiwa’s request to have her prosecution stayed due to poor health.
Mubaiwa, who suffers from lymphodema, argued that her trial had been delayed and that her health now prevented her from giving instructions to her lawyer.
However, the magistrate ruled that Mubaiwa was to blame for the delays.
According to NewZimbabwe.com, Mubaiwa’s lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, protested the decision, calling it unfair and claiming the magistrate misunderstood the basis of the application. Said Mtetwa:
She (the magistrate) said Marry is responsible for the delay because she is the one who was sick and was being remanded in hospital.
It is logic that I simply cannot understand…it’s admitted that she was sick, it’s admitted in her ruling that she was in hospital so how it can be said… to blame her for the delay beats me.
Mubaiwa, who has been battling a cancerous ailment for over four years and lost two limbs, is on trial for attempting to kill Chiwenga, while he was hospitalised in South Africa in 2019. She also faces money laundering charges.
Due to her poor health, her lawyer requested that her prosecution be stayed, as she is unable to give instructions. A similar request was made at the High Court. Said Mtetwa:
Applicant cannot fully enjoy the right to a fair hearing which I am advised includes the right to be physically and mentally capable of following the full proceedings, the capacity to give instructions to one’s legal representative throughout the proceedings and if put on her defence, the right to cogently testify on the issues raised in evidence and to generally give her version of events.
I am able to say that the applicant is currently unable to fully exercise all of those rights due to all the issues I have raised above.
In particular, I point out that with regards the money laundering case, the State papers were provided to the defence when the applicant was already on heavy medication, had already lost a limb and was trying to avert the loss of her leg.
Consequently, she has been unable to give instructions on the documents supplied by the State in November, 2023 with the result that her legal team only has general instructions from the period of her arrest when no document had been provided save for the general allegations given on remand
Mtetwa argued that it would be in the interest of justice to give her client a break, as the court has the power to stop unfinished proceedings in exceptional cases where continuing the trial would lead to an unfair outcome that cannot be corrected in any other way.
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