Court hammers Katsimberis

THE Harare Magistrates Court yesterday heard that builder, Georgios Katsimberis only decided to make a counter report against council officials and West Properties employees two months after his pending fraud case had already been reported to police in an attempt to create confusion and a smokescreen.

This was said by senior prosecutor Mr Michael Reza while opposing Katsimberis’ application to have the matter referred to the Constitutional Court.

Katsimberis is accused of duping Pokugara Properties (Pvt) Limited of close to US$1 million in a joint venture to build cluster houses in Harare’s Borrowdale suburb.

Through his Lawyer Mr Tendai Biti, Katsimberis said his application was based on two grounds; one of equal protection of the law and the right to fair hearing.

Mr Biti said the previous prosecutor who was handling the matter was biased, therefore his client’s right to a fair trial were being infringed. The State led by Mr Reza and Tafara Chirambira opposed Biti’s application saying the application was frivolous and vexetious.

The prosecutors said the application was improperly made, hence there was no need for the matter to be referred to the Constitutional Court.

“This application is more like a defence. Only when a constitutional question has been raised can a matter be referred to the apex court and here, there is no such question,” said Mr Chirambira.

He said the matter could not be referred to the Constitutional Court only because the defence said it was not served with certain documents.

“Procedural issues cannot become a constitutional question. There is no seriousness in this application,” said Mr Chirambira.

Mr Reza told the court that the complainant, Pokugara Properties, was the first to report the fraud matter against Katsimberis to police and two months later, Katsimberis made his report of perjury against council officials and some employees of West Properties who are witnesses in his fraud case.

Mr Reza said the plans which were used by Katsimberis were not approved by the City of Harare.

Earlier on, Mr Biti had been warned by Harare regional magistrate Mrs Letwin Rwodzi to desist from addressing Pokugara Properties director Mr Ken Sharpe as a fugitive and land baron. Mrs Rwodzi again forced Mr Biti to retract his statement after he said the State was acting as barbarians.

The matter was deferred to June 15.