Zim High Court says murder suspects tortured

Zim High Court says murder suspects tortured
• State case in Nkala murder trial collapses

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By Staff Reporter
03/03/04
A HIGH Court judge has sensationally upheld claims by thee opposition MDC activists that they were tortured in captivity and castigated state witnesses in a murder trial as “indulging in the work of fiction” and showing “utter contempt of the due process of justice”.

Justice Sandra Mungwira told the prosecution in the trial of the MDC activists over the murder of war veterans’ leader Cain Nkala that all warned and cautioned statements together with video evidence was inadmissible as torture had been used to obtain confessions.

Legal experts said the prosecution case had all but collapsed after the judge tore into the heart of its evidence, judging all the confessions to have been obtained under duress and therefore inadmissible in the case.

In a judgement delivered Tuesday, Justice Mungwira said: “The warned and cautioned indications, statements and video recording sought to be produced by the State against each of the accused are ruled to be inadmissible.”

The judgement followed what has been called a “trial within a trial” after defence lawyers sought the exclusion of all warned and cautioned statements obtained from their clients under duress.

Cain Nkala was kidnapped and murdered in November 2001. His decomposing body was found in Solusi, about 40km south-west of Bulawayo. A few days after his kidnap the three accused, Khethani Sibanda, Remember Moyo and Sazini Mpofu were paraded on state television apparently making indications to the police to where Nkala’s body was buried in swamp.

The three were also seen confessing to the crime of murder and burying Nkala’s body. The police had claimed the information had been voluntarily given.

The defence team led by Advocates Happias Zhou, Edith Mushore, Erik Morris and Deepak Mehta instructed by Nicholas Mathonsi and Josephat Tshuma said the whole indications on the video were rehearsed and the police had told their clients to repeat what they had told them.

Various methods of torture used by the police were also described to the court by the three opposition activists who are jointly charged with MDC legislator Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, Nicholas Masera and Army Zulu.

In her judgement, Justice Mungwira was scathing about the conduct of the police and other state witnesses who had come before her. She said most of their accounts were inconsistent. Most of the witnesses, she said, had no credibility and appeared to lie repeatedly.

The prosecution, she said, had failed to convince the court that the statements of the accused could be accepted as a true account of what they had told their interrogators.

"The witnesses conducted themselves in a shameless fashion and displayed utter contempt for the due administration of justice to the extent that they were prepared to indulge in what can only be described as works of fiction as is especially illustrated by the state of (the) investigations diary," said Justice Mungwira.
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