City clashes: Five in the dock

FIVE people who are alleged to be part of a rowdy mob which stoned and heavily damaged Harare Central Police Station when police clashed with commuters last week, yesterday filed their bail application before a Harare magistrate.

The gang members are arguing that police officers should be the ones in the dock, adding that their arrest was a cover-up of the ineptitude of the law enforcement agents.

Gibson Kataruware (38), Denis Kondo (29), Prince Beni (23), Evans Agogo and Emmanuel Muzariri (22) are facing public violence charges.

Through their lawyer Mr Bothwell Ndlovu, the gang members made their application before Harare magistrate Ms Annia Ndiraya, who is expected to make her ruling today.

Prosecutor Mr Sebastian Mutizirwa opposed bail on the basis that the five were likely to abscond trial due to the gravity of their offence.

If convicted, Mr Mutizirwa said they faced custodial sentences of up to 10 years.

He also said that the gang was likely to interfere with State witnesses.

Mr Ndlovu accused the prosecution of ignoring the police’s conduct, which led to loss of lives and injuries during the skirmishes.

“This is a case where the opposite should have happened and police officers involved (are) supposed to be the ones in court,” he said. “The State is just deliberately ignoring the issue of life here, some people are battling for their lives in hospital.

“If it were true that the accused persons were the perpetrators of the violence that erupted in town that day, how then is it that they have severe injuries? Some can no longer walk, others cannot hear anymore and there is another battling for his life in hospital.”

Mr Ndlovu argued that his clients were possible witnesses against the police, since they witnessed the shooting and that their arrest was meant to silence them.

“The issue of interference with witnesses falls away because at this stage there are no State witnesses; rather, the accused persons are the ones who could be potential witnesses of the killings and I suspect that may be the reason why they were arrested,” he said.

“No compelling reasons have been given to justify their incarceration. Police allege that they managed to identify the accused persons by their blue T-shirts, I now fear for Chelsea and Dynamos fans because this means they are liable for arrest.”

It is the State’s case that on February 23, Constables Makumire, Mhundwa, Mpofu and Chisango were on duty at Harare Central Police Station manning the pedestrians’ gate when the gang and their accomplices, who are still at large, gathered at the station singing and trying to force their way in.

It was alleged that they also influenced passers-by to join in the melee.

Agogo, the State alleged, forced his way into the station, but was barred from entering the Charge Office.

He is said to have picked stones and threw them at police officers, thereby shattering windows at the Charge Office’s main entrance.

Agogo was apprehended, but his accomplices continuously threw stones into the offices and damaged a parked Land Rover Defender, which belonged to the Police Reaction Group.