Jailed ‘corrupt’ cops appeal against conviction
TWO corrupt police officers from Plumtree who were each jailed for 18 months for extortion have appealed against their conviction and sentence at the High Court.
Fume Chibvuri (34) and Aaron Zivuku (28) recently made headlines after they were allegedly caught on camera trying to extort a cross border transporter, Mr Gift Moyo, at Plumtree Border Post last year.
Plumtree magistrate Mr Gideon Ruvetsa sentenced each of them to 24 months imprisonment but six months were suspended on condition that they do not commit a similar offence within the next five years.
Submitting a bail pending appeal application before Plumtree magistrate Mr Taurai Manwere, their lawyer, Mr Tafadzwa Muvhami of Mugiya and Macharaga Law Chambers, said his clients were entitled to be released on bail while waiting for a hearing on their appeal. “We have filed an appeal at the High Court against the sentence that was passed against my clients as we feel they were convicted for an offence they didn’t do. In the meantime Your Worship may you grant them bail while they wait for the High Court ruling as there is also a likelihood that the ruling will be passed in their favour,” said Mr Muvhami. He said his clients were not going to abscond if granted bail. Mr Muvhami said Chibvuri and Zivuku were discharged from the police force following the conviction but they had appealed to the Commissioner General of Police Augustine Chihuri in a bid to prove their innocence.
He said the High Court ruling could drag for two years which means that his clients risk languishing in jail for an offence they did not commit.
“If the court may grant bail and order my clients to reside at specific addresses, to report on the last Friday of every month at Plumtree Police Station and deposit $100 each,” Mr Muvhami said.
For the State, Mr Stanley Chinyanganya opposed the bail application.
He said Chibvuri and Zivuku could no longer be classified as innocent people as they had been convicted.
Mr Chinyanganya said they were likely to abscond as they were facing a serious offence and the two men were corrupt police officers who deserved to be jailed. Mr Manwere will rule on the application next Monday. The two police officers were arrested on July 14 after they threatened to arrest a cross border transporter if he did not give them a bribe.
He gave them $20 but they complained it is was not enough. He then requested $10 back indicating that he did not have any money left but they refused.
Upon realising that the corrupt practices of the police were continuing, he recorded a video of what was transpiring using his cellphone. — @DubeMatutu