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Court Reporters
The High Court yesterday dismissed a bail application by RMG Independent End Time Message church leader Robert Martin Gumbura in a case in which he is accused of raping yet another woman.Justice Esther Muremba threw out the bail application arguing that Gumbura’s release would cause public disharmony considering that he is a church leader who fellowships with his alleged victims.
The court held that the State had a strong case against him and that if convicted, he is likely to face a lengthy prison term. Justice Muremba also considered that Gumbura was facing several other cases in which he awaits judgment.
When Gumbura first appeared at the Harare Magistrates’ Court, he was being accused of raping 11 women. When the trial started, one of the women was out of the country while three other cases were separated from the other seven for the purposes of trial.
Gumbura was tried and now awaits judgment for allegedly raping seven women. Trial in respect of the four women whom he allegedly raped with the assistance of his personal assistant, Tendai Ganyani, has already started.
The bail application that is pending at the High Court is in respect of the case of the woman who was in South Africa when the other trials began.
Meanwhile, the trial of Gumbura’s three wives and their alleged five accomplices accused of photographing themselves naked and possessing pornographic videos was postponed yesterday because their lawyer is sick.
Their lawyer, Ms Rekai Maposa, who was attending to Gumbura’s bail application at the High Court failed to proceed to the magistrates’ courts for the trial after she fell sick.
It was proposed that the matter be postponed to February 5, but magistrate Mr Douglas Chikwewe rejected the idea insisting that he wanted the case be dealt with as soon as possible.
The matter was then postponed to January 31, coincidentally the judgement day for Gumbura who is facing separate rape charges.
Online Reporter