AG Johannes Tomana lost the persecution case against Advocate Eric Matinenga right
Parliamentary and Constitutional Affairs Minister Advocate Eric Matinenga a priced catch in Mugabe’s unrelenting politics of legal persecution of senior MDC officials must rank as one of the latest big catch that went away for Mugabe.
From 31 May 2008 Matinenga... spent several months behind the Zimbabwe prison bars accused of inciting residents in his Buhera south constituency to commit acts of political violence against Zanu PF supporters after prosecutors opposed the granting of bail on account he had committed serious offences and would interfere with investigations and witnesses if granted bail.
But the persecution came to a dead end when Manicaland Regional Magistrate, Hlekani Mwayera presiding over the matter ruled as was widely expected that the State (read here Attorney General Johannes Tomana) had failed to substantiate accusations levelled against the legislator and discharged him to full freedom.
The Mutare Magistrate left prosecutors ruing the one that went away like a fisherman after losing a landed catch.
In a related matter Murambinda Magistrate Tendai Mahwe acquitted 11 MDC members who were accused of torching property belonging to ZANU-PF supporters at the time Premier Morgan Tsvangirai's wife, Susan who had passed away in a tragic and suspicious accident was being laid to rest in Buhera.
It appears even the small catch is hard to keep in Johannes Tomana’s leaky keep net for political prisoners whose only crime is opposition to Zanu PF politics and misrule.
The 11 were exonerated of any wrongdoing by all the witnesses leaving one wondering why they were ever arrested to the extent of being brought to court on charges no witness had ever testified to.
Magistrate Mahwe convicted six other individuals and sentenced them to 36 months in prison with six months suspended and another 12 months suspended on condition that the individuals compensate the complainants as consolation for Tomana’s persecution efforts.
The convictions will do little to satisfy Tomana and may very well have been because the accused lacked proper defence representation as the crime for which they were convicted was widely reported to have been a retaliatory measure they took after minority Zanu PF hooligans had gone on a rampage beating up elderly and juvenile villagers who had been left exposed after the vigilant youths that normally shielded them had gone for the funeral.
It’s like a fisherman left with tadpoles in his keep net after the big catch slips through a hole in the net.
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