Police accused of “panel-beating” David Coltart case
A regional magistrate in Bulawayo this week said senior police officers in Matabeleland had been “panelbeating” their case against three Movement for Democratic Change security officers in order to make the charges stick.
The case involves an arms cache allegedly discovered last Saturday at the homes of the personal security aides of the MDC MP, David Coltart. In the absence of coherent evidence, the state had been “panelbeating” its case in order to prosecute the accused, the provincial magistrate declared. The charges were not as serious as alleged, he said.
On Monday, the police led by the officer commanding Bulawayo province, Senior Assistant Commissioner Albert Mandizha, and his deputy, Assistant Commissioner Oliver Mashonganyika, convened a hasty press conference where they paraded what they alleged were arms of war discovered at the homes of the accused trio.
The police claimed all weapons were unlicensed despite repeated claims by the MDC that they had valid government-issued licences. Only one weapon, a .22 rifle belonging to one of the accused, was unlicensed. The licence had expired five days before his arrest, defence lawyers pointed out.
The police allegations were treated with disdain by the provincial magistrate for Matabeleland North, John Masimba, after the defence for the three argued that valid weapons licences were handed to the police on Saturday. The evidence directly contradicted Mandizha who on Monday was still arguing that the weapons were unlicensed.
The state newspapers on Tuesday reported how the police found massive caches of arms at the homes of the accused. Police commissioner Augustine Chihuri was widely quoted in the official press this week giving theories on how the MDC were working to destabilise the country and how the police “stumbled on the weapons”.
On Tuesday, however, during the remand hearing of Headley Douglas Quick (31), Edy Markram (35), and Craig Frank Biddlecombe (35) who are charged with contravening sections of the Firearms Act, the Miscellaneous Offences Act and the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act, the state failed to prove its case against them. Masimba complained that the state was “panel-beating” its case when it could only adduce incoherent evidence.
“The case is not as serious as the state is making it appear,” Masimba said. “Actually there was a lot of panel-beating in this case in a bid to enable the state to prosecute the accused. Most of the evidence in this case is incoherent with what I have in the papers.”
The prosecutor appearing for the state, Simon Nleya, was quizzed continuously by Masimba who argued that the state’s case was inconclusive. The state in its papers alleged that the police raided the homes of the three aides and discovered what they termed arms of war and specified knives together with a mace protection spray. “I do not see any reason why this court should not grant bail to the three accused because according to the evidence and the papers in front of me, this case is not as serious as the police want it to appear,” Masimba told the packed courtroom.
Revelations made to the court by the defence counsel for the three, Tim Cherry of Webb, Low Barry, revealed that police in the city were investigating Biddlecombe, a former arms dealer, for weapons that he handed over to the police for safe keeping in April after his firearms licence expired. The defence also argued that some of the weapons found in Biddlecombe’s house belonged to his father-in-law, Peter Goosen, a Nyamandlovu farmer expelled from his farm by war veterans last month. However, during Tuesday’s court case the state was forced to alter its charges against the three. Cherry argued that all the weapons impounded by the police were licensed. Nleya, for the state, concurred with Cherry that the MDC later brought the licences for the weapons but argued that the police were still investigating ownership of the firearms.
Posted by Wellington Chadehumbe
on September 15, 2001. Filed under Politics.
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