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justice when her trial opened before magistrate Mrs Rumbidzai Mugwagwa.
She denied the charges.
Mrs Mugwagwa took over the case after Mr Tendai Mahwe recused himself last week. He stood down after Mtetwa argued that he was the presiding magistrate in another case linked to her.
Mtetwa was arrested alongside four MDC-T officials accused of compiling “dockets” against Government officials.
She was arrested for trying to block the arrest of the four.
The trial began after Mrs Mugwagwa declined her application for postponement.
Through her lawyer, Mr Harrison Nkomo, Mtetwa had sought a postponment saying she was engaged at the High court and Labour Court as defence counsel.
She wanted the trial deferred to August 14.
The State-led by Mr Tawanda Zvekare, Mr Michael Mugabe and Ms Purity Chikangaise opposed the postponement arguing that the prosecution was ready to commence the trial.
Mr Zvekare said Mtetwa was an accused person and should put aside all her commitments elsewhere and focus on her trial.
In her defence outline read in court, Mtetwa argued that the charge sheet and the State outline do not disclose an offence.
She also denied shouting at the police officers.
She argued that as a non-speaker of the Shona language, she could not have uttered the words attributed to her in Shona.
“She will deny that the officers she encountered were executing their duties in a lawful manner and in accordance with provisions of the law as they failed to hand a copy of the search warrant . . . she will deny uttering the words attributed to her in the strongest possible terms and will.
“She will point out that the alleged utterances were dreamt up by the State after the event and were neither put to the accused at the warned and cautioned stage,” read part of the defence outline.
Mr Nkomo also argued that the police officers refused to show Mtetwa the search warrant which they said they would show to her at the police station.
“One of the officers saw her holding her phone and he animatedly told Mukazhi that accused was either taking pictures or recording what was taking place,” he said.
“They demanded her phone and she declined to give it to them on the basis that a legal practitioner’s phone contains privileged attorney/client communication.”
Mr Nkomo further stated that the prosecution of Mtetwa was malicious.
The prosecution called its first witness Chief Superintendent Luckson Mukazhi who testified against Mtetwa.
He told the court that Mtetwa bolted into the premises while they were executing their duties and started shouting at them.
He said Mtetwa accused them of being “imbwa dzaMugabe” (Mugabe’s dogs) and described them as confused “coackroaches’’.
“Your worship, I tried to calm her down but she continued shouting at us even her client Mpofu failed to cool her down,” said Chief Supt Mukazhi.
“There was commotion at that time as people had gathered to watch the drama which had been created by the accused.”
Chief Supt Mukazhi said if Mtetwa had approached her client for instruction at that time she would have been told that we had shown him the search warrant.
“Her actions hindered the course of our duties since we had to abandon the whole process and return later to complete the searches,” he said.
The trial continues on Saturday June 15.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter