2 prison guards in court for aiding jailbreak

TWO members of the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services yesterday appeared before a Harare magistrate charged with assisting a suspected serial rapist, Sam Muropa, escape from prison.

Ngonidzashe Munhuuripi (43) and Simbarashe Machekera (24), appeared before magistrate Dennis Mangosi charged with aiding a prisoner to escape from lawful custody as defined in section 185 of the Criminal Law Act.

Munhuuripi and Machekera were remanded in custody to Monday for bail ruling.

It is alleged that last Friday, Munhuuripi and Machekera were on duty at Harare Remand Prison when they approached Muropa, a prisoner who was in D class Cell C12, and offered to assist him escape from prison saying it was going to be difficult for him to secure bail.

During lock-up time, Munhuuripi and Machekera allegedly hid Muropa in a bathroom and later took him to the reception area, where they secured his clothes falsely claiming that he had been granted bail.

They further briefed him on the security set-up of the premises and advised him of the route which he was going to take in order to avoid arrest by other prison officers who were on duty.

Munhuuripi allegedly assisted Muropa to lay concrete pillars against the pre-cast wall on the side which the prisoner used to escape from the prison premises. Machekera later secured a taxi cab, which collected Muropa along Enterprise Road.

On October 5, Muropa was re-arrested by CID Homicide Harare and he narrated how he escaped from the remand prison with the aid of the two wardens.