HARARE regional magistrate Noel Mupeiwa on Wednesday ordered the defence lawyer in the matter in which a Harare businessman, Upenyu Mashangwa, and his colleagues, are accused of fraudulently importing a Land Rover Discovery for Tendayi Magaya, to provide the court with his client’s warned and cautioned statement and an audio recording to enable him to make an informed determination.
Tendai is the wife of Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries leader Walter Magaya.
Mupeiwa said he needed to read the document and listen to co-accused, Cosmas Mushininga’s recording before making a ruling on whether the statement could be accepted as evidence or not.
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| Court Demands Prophet Magaya's Recording |
Mushininga is jointly charged with Mashangwa, Kudakwashe Larry Mapfumo and Clifford Tinashe Gonde.
The trial within a trial came after Mushininga disowned his warned and cautioned statement midway through the case, saying it was recorded under duress and that he was also forced to sign a document he did not author.
“The information before me is insufficient to make a ruling on the matter and I, therefore, want the statement and the audio recording placed before the court,” Mupeiwa said.
However, Mthombeni immediately told the court he was uncomfortable with releasing the statement and the audio to the court before the appropriate time as it would forewarn the State.
“We don’t want to pre-empt the evidence we have and I have reservations now about giving the audio to the court,” Mthombeni said.
Mupeiwa then asked Mtombeni to come to his chambers where he would allow the court to have sight of the statement and hear the audio recording away from the public.
In the alleged statement, Mushininga is said to have implicated his co-accused Mashangwa in the crime and the audio is alleged to have captured Walter Magaya instructing police on how to handle the matter.
After listening to the audio and reading the statement, Mupeiwa rolled over the matter to today for ruling. Liberty Gono is prosecuting the matter. Newsday
