AN EGYPTIAN man fractured his leg while trying to jump over a fence on Zimbabwe’s border with Zambia in a desperate bid to avoid paying a visa entrance fee.

Mohamed Abdul Mohamed Sharbagh, along with two other Egyptians Elsaid Ibrahim Aly Elak and Hazem Mohamed Zaki Ahmed Faraj were fined US$10 each or seven days in prison by a Victoria Falls magistrate on Wednesday.

They were charged with a Section 11 breach of the Immigration Act relating to “entering through an undesignated point”.

Three Bulawayo men who were helping the men cross the border illegally were each fined US$100 or two months in prison. Mthabisi Zulu, Luwis Sibanda and Servious Sibanda faced a Section 36 charge of “assisting any person to enter illegally”.

Prosecuting Listen Nare told the court how on July 22, just after 11PM, the three Egyptians crossed over from the Zambian side and got to a place known locally as “no man’s land” on the Victoria Falls Bridge. They were in the company of the three Zimbabweans.

“They jumped the steel fence into the country along the Victoria Falls Bridge Road and walked through the rainforest up to a point just after the Customs and Excise offices, which are adjacent to the visitor’s car park,” the prosecutor said.

Once there, they again jumped a steel fence and Sharbagh landed awkwardly, fracturing his leg.

A border patrol team that had been watching the men’s movements arrested them as they reached the car park.