Man in court for raping minors

A 21-YEAR-OLD man yesterday appeared before a Harare magistrate facing accusations of raping two female juvenile relatives aged five and nine.

Magistrate Yeukai Dzuda remanded Ronald Kwashirai in custody to today for bail hearing.

The State opposed bail citing overwhelming evidence.

The court heard that on an unknown date this year, Kwashirai entered into a bedroom where the fiveyear-old minor, who not be named to protect her, was sleeping and raped her.

In the case involving the nine-yearold minor, the rape ordeal allegedly started last after threatening to assault her and the accused person raped the girl on several occasions until the matter came to light this year, leading to his arrest.

In an unrelated case, Malvin Kudakwashe Serima (24) yesterday appeared before Dzuda on initial remand in a case he faces money-laundering charges.

The case was referred to today for bail hearing.

The complainant was BancABC Bank represented by its security officer Tendai Nzombe.

It is alleged that in October this year, Kudakwashe opened two BancABC visa prepaid accounts.

The court heard that on October 23, the visa accounts were fraudulently funded with a total of US$120 000 and the source of the funds is unknown.

State Prosecutor Chanakira told the court the visa cards were used in Ivory Coast on the same day where US$8 395,99 was withdrawn from the first card, with US$9 529,42 withdrawn from the second card.

Both transactions were ATM cash withdrawals, a trend that is synonymous with money-laundering.

The court further alleges that the offence was discovered on October 25 when BancABC risk department established that the two cards were among the list of visa cards that had been flagged by Visa International for suspicious transactions.