Businessman Ali Mohammed wants passport for SA trip

Nyore Madzianike

Senior Court Reporter

PAKISTAN businessman, Ali Mohammed, jointly accused with Henrietta Rushwaya and three others on attempting to smuggle 6kg gold out of Zimbabwe, yesterday applied for a temporary release of his passport to allow him to attend an investors meeting in South Africa and was prepared to add $2 million and a house to his bail.

Mohammed, who is director of Ali Japan Zimbabwe, wants his passport back for two months and wants his police reporting conditions relaxed while he is in South Africa.

Through his lawyer, Mr Admire Rubaya, Mohammed said he was prepared to add $2 million in cash and handover the deeds to his Hatfield property of 4 267 square-metres to the $100 000 bail he was granted in November last year.

Mr Rubaya told the court that Mohammed was invited to attend a investors meeting in Johannesburg.

“The accused is a foreign investor,” he said. “Although he is accused of committing a criminal offence, he has not stopped investing in this jurisdiction. He has engaged with Gregton Consultancy where he is required to visit the Johannesburg based company for a meetings relating to investments and exploration in Mali.

“Accused is one of the real investors that the New Dispensation managed to convince through various international meetings, to come and invest in a bid to improve our economy and living conditions of our general populace.

“The accused intends to meet with other investors with the view to convince them to partner him in mining and exploration in this country. He is prepared to increase the security to convince the court that he is coming back to this country.”

Mr Rubaya said Mohammed proved that could be trusted with his liberty if he was a flight risk by not absconding or violating bail conditions since November last year. Mohammed was an international investor, who could not soil his business reputation by running away from trivial matter.

Mr Rubaya submitted that arresting investors like Mohammed was counter-productive and jeopardised Government efforts of luring investors into the country.

“It is our considered submission with respect to those with prosecutorial and arresting powers that his arrest, as an investor, is unwarranted, undeserved and counter-productive,” he said. “The arrest of investors like accused destroy the good will that our Government has built over the few past years.”

Mr Rubaya said Mohammed’s business trip would complement Governments efforts towards economic turn-around measures, as the economy was not spared by Covid-19 effects.

He also suggested that the court could order him to report to the Zimbabwean Embassy in South to aver fears that he will abscond trial.

The State led by Mrs Netsai Mushayabasa opposed the application for the passport.

She said the court saw it necessary that he surrendered his passport so that he could stand trial. Mrs Mushayabsa said the court was aware that he was a foreign investor when it granted him bail and there was nothing that had changed.

“The reason why he was ordered to surrender the passport was to ensure that he attends court,” she said. “That he is a foreign investor is not a new fact that was presented before the court. Despite the fact that investors go around the globe seeking fortunes to turn around economies, the court saw it fit to order him to surrender his passport.”

Harare regional magistrate Mr Ngoni Nduna is set to make a ruling on Monday.