the herald
Prosper Dembedza Herald Correspondent
Police are awaiting a password from South Africa to open a disc of PDF documents to conclude their investigations into the money laundering charges against Marry Mubaiwa, investigating officer Victor Masimba told the court last Friday. Trial Court of Harare.
All local investigations are complete, he said.
“The most important thing is to get information from South Africa,” Detective Masimba said. “We received some documents as well as a disk containing the PDF files, but the CD Rom has a password.
“I had a conversation with Mr. Chris Mutangadura from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). will have obtained the password, we will open the PDF, which contains the information we need.
Det Masimba further maintained that the documents go through diplomatic protocols before being passed to the NPA.
Mubaiwa’s lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, has called for her client to be removed from pre-trial detention, arguing that the state has not completed its investigations in 32 months.
This means she could still be summoned to stand trial, but would not be required to appear in court for interim remands and the bail conditions for that charge would drop.
Ms Mtetwa said the state would suffer no harm if Mubaiwa was removed from pre-trial detention.
“The state had enough time to complete its investigations, but failed,” she said. “Therefore, the accused must be removed from pre-trial detention.” The court will rule on the claim tomorrow.
In the previous court hearing, Magistrate Mr Stanford Mambanje ordered the investigator to appear before him to explain the delays which are delaying the progress of the prosecution against Mubaiwa.
Mubaiwa is also awaiting a decision on his request for release as the state’s case closes in another trial for assaulting his former maid, Ms Delight Munyoro.
This decision is expected this Wednesday and if the magistrate finds that she has a case to answer, then her defense will open.