Biti case adjourned

Herald Correspondent

The trial of Tendai Biti on assault charges was yesterday adjourned when the presiding magistrate, Mrs Vongai Muchuchuti, and deputy Prosecutor General Michael Reza, were not available.

This prompted Harare magistrate Mr Stanford Mambanje to adjourn the trial to November 15.

Biti is facing charges of assaulting an investor, Mrs Tatiana Aleshina, at the Harare Magistrates Court.

 During the previous sitting, Mr Reza accused Biti of desperately trying to squeeze irrelevant evidence in his application for referral to the Constitutional Court.

Mr Reza told the court that such irrelevant evidence by the CCC vice president was a tactic to divert attention on the assault case.

Biti continued talking about Augur Investments’ deals with the City of Harare, which Mr Reza had been objecting to for the past month saying that did not have anything to do with the assault charge he was facing.

Biti submitted documents that include minutes of meetings held almost 10 years ago by the City of Harare, documents prepared by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission on Harare land, documents prepared by the Special Anti-Corruption Unit (Sacu) on Harare City and Sunshine Development Company agreement, a collection of documents that include Justice Muremba’s judgments and other rulings in other matters, recorded statements by Zacc of former Harare town clerk Tendai Mahachi and former mayor Sekesai Makwavarara.

But Mr Reza objected, saying all those submissions were off topic as they did not address the issue of verbal assault which is before the court.