Magistrate ‘brave or stupid’

Zimbabwe’s chief prosecutor Michael Reza – forced to recuse himself from the ongoing trial of MDC-Alliance MP Tendai Biti – labelled a magistrate “very brave or very stupid” for allowing the live streaming of court proceedings, a court heard on Tuesday.

Reza sent a message to Thabani Mpofu, who heads the president’s special prosecuting unit, criticising magistrate Gloria Takundwa for making “another strange ruling” after she granted an application by Biti’s lawyers for his trial proceedings to be streamed live on TV and the internet.

The message, read in court on Tuesday morning, said: “Cde Mpofu. It’s Reza, how are you?

“Another strange ruling by the magistrate trying Tendai Biti. They applied for live streaming of the case, with cameras and journalists in court and proceedings beamed all over the world. She has just agreed to that without authority of her boss the chief justice. She is either very brave or very stupid or both ...”

Biti’s lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said Reza should be held in contempt of court. Takundwa said she was referring the matter to the high court for guidance.

Biti, a former finance minister, is on trial for allegedly announcing unofficial results of the July 30 presidential election in violation of the Electoral Act of Zimbabwe.

In November, Takundwa forced Reza to stand down as Biti’s prosecutor over a politically charged filing the chief law officer made at the high court while opposing Biti’s application for an exception to the charges.

Biti contended that he was illegally before the court after he was seized by Zimbabwean state security agents in Zambia, where he had sought asylum, before being brought back to Zimbabwe. – ANA