Hopewell Chino’no being taken to court this morning.
1000hrs: Our lawyers are ready. We have Beatrice Mtetwa, Adv Nkomo, Jeremiah Bhamu, Gift Mtisi and Doug Coltart are ready
1002hours : The accused have taken to the holding cells waiting for trial. No time has been given yet as to when the trial will commence
1004hrs; MDC A VP Tendai Biti is in attendance for solidarity and legal advice
1013 hrs: The police have been very cooperative. Some of our comrades have been denied entry at the gate. There is a sizeable number of people in solidarity outside
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There is a lot of confusion at the courts as our President and Convener of 31 July Movement Jacob Ngarivhume and co-accused Hopewell Chin’ono are shunted from table to another. It seems the state is not ready for trial
1057hrs
The court is now seated ready to start. Very few allowed in the court room due to covid 19 safety regulations
1111hrs:
Reza response..
– No double profiling done
– reads out the charges.. Inciting public violence as the main charge.
– gives evidence of the charges by reading tweets purportedly from JN’s twitter handle
– advises the court to keep the accused on remand
Reza and Murombedzi prosecuting for the state. Adv NKOMO in defence
1100hrs
Adv outlines the President’s complaints against the police.
– after arrest he was dumped at law and order for 6 hrs without a charge being levelled against him
– 48 hrs required by the law have lapsed before he appears before you
– he was not allowed access to his lawyers immediately after arrest
– was profiled twice. The police said were not aware of the first profile done by an unknown female officer raising serious security issues
1117 hrs
Reza’s response..
-rejects the placing of client to bail.
– calls Inv Officer Detective Inspector Naison Chirape to the witness stand.
– Chirape says JN must not be given bail as he can abscond. He said many Bishops are in support of JN so the demo with succeed and turn out to be violent
– Chirape reads out JN’s tweets saying the following on these tweets is too much
– Chirape said JN tweets are national and the whole country will follow him in demonstration and coz havoc. He says JN has called for war
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