Biti wants to block complainant from defending herself

THE assault trial of Tendai Biti continued yesterday with the CCC legislator alleging that the complainant was responding to his submissions through a press statement.

Biti is facing charges of assaulting a Zimbabwean investor Mrs Tatiana Aleshina at the Magistrates Court.

During the previous sittings, the CCC vice president made false claims that the complainant’s company had been illegally given more than 200 000 hectares of land in Harare while in actual fact Harare as a whole is only 94 000 hectares.

This prompted the complainant to respond to the allegations through a press release which was widely covered by various media houses.

Now Biti is complaining that Mrs Aleshina should have not responded to his submissions.

However, Deputy Prosecutor General Mr Michael Reza responded saying the press statement issue had nothing to do with the proceedings in court.

Mr Reza further submitted that the current matter is of verbal assault and the alleged statement refers to issues that are currently at the High Court which has no bearing on the matter at hand.

He accused Biti of using the statement as a delaying tactic so that proceedings move at a snail pace.

Harare magistrate Mrs Vongai Muchuchuti postponed the matter to November 18 for continuation of the application for referral to the ConCourt.