THREE women accused of ritualistic sex attacks on more than a dozen men in order to obtain their semen have been freed on US$300 bail each.
Gweru residents Rosemary Chakwizira, 28, and sisters Sophie, 26, and Netsai Nhokwara, 24, were released from Chikurubi Prison on Thursday – their first taste of freedom since their arrest on October 9.
Also freed was 24-year-old Thulani Ngwenya - the only man charged in the case.
Lawyers for the quartet met Harare magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini in chambers on Thursday, armed with consent papers from the Attorney General who lifted earlier objections against the granting of bail.
Hours later, the lawyers -- Dumisani Mthombeni and Charles Nyika -- arrived at the prison to secure the quartet’s release.
The three women were photographed in green prison uniform while waiting to be processed. Gone were the wigs they sashayed into the Harare Magistrates’ Court wearing on October 16.
Sophie Nhokwara’s first move as she left prison was to pull down her Facebook page where “friends” had turned on her since she was charged.
Prosecutors have charged the four with 17 counts of aggravated assault.
They are accused of roaming Zimbabwe’s highways picking up male hitch-hikers, drugging them and taking them to secluded spots where they were forced to be intimate with the women.
The hitch-hikers’ semen, say prosecutors, was then collected, apparently for ritual purposes.
Police found 31 used condoms, four of them half full with semen, when Ngwenya was involved in a fatal accident near Gweru. The three women arrived shortly after the accident seeking to retrieve the plastic bag containing the condoms and were arrested.
The quartet will next appear in court on November 28. As part of their stringent release conditions, they must surrender their travel documents and report twice weekly to Gweru police.