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allegations of possessing weaponry for commission of acts of insurgency.
Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku threw out the State’s application for leave to appeal against the High Court decision saying there were no prospects of success on appeal.
Bennett was acquitted in May last year by Justice Bhunu, but the Attorney-General filed an application for leave to appeal against the decision at the superior court.
However, the highest court in the land found that the lower court correctly discharged Bennett at the close of the State case and that there were no good grounds for appeal.
“In the result, I agree with the conclusion of the learned judge in the court a quo (lower court) that this was a proper case in which a discharge in terms of Section 198(3) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act was appropriate.
“I see no prospect of the Supreme Court coming to a conclusion different from that of the court a quo.
“As there are no prospects of success on appeal, leave to appeal against the decision of the court a quo is refused,” ruled the Chief Justice.
It was the superior court’s observation that the State had failed to prove the allegations that Bennett financed the illegal purchase of weapons found in the possession of an arms dealer Michael Peter Hitschmann.
Chief Justice Chidyausiku said the lower court was correct in ruling as inadmissible, the contrived e-mails relied upon by the AG as evidence linking Bennett to the offence.
“The learned judge in the court a quo, in a meticulous and well reasoned judgment, concluded that the accused had no case to answer and discharged him at the close of the State’s case.
“I have carefully perused the voluminous record in this case.
“I am satisfied that on the evidence led up to the close of the State case, the learned judge could not have come to different conclusion than he did.
“After the learned judge ruled, quite correctly in my view, inadmissible the confessions of Hitschmann and the e-mails, there was literally no evidence linking the accused to the crimes he was charged with.
“In the circumstances, the prospects of success on appeal are non-existent,” he said.
Online Reporter