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Herald Reporter
THE High Court has granted bail to eight robbery suspects arrested during a police raid at their colleague Boris Mushonga’s funeral in Mbare two weeks ago. Justice Felistus Chatukuta granted US$50 bail to the suspects after consent from both the State and Defence counsel.
The eight were also ordered to surrender their travelling documents, reside at their given address and not to interfere with witnesses.
The suspects — Lazarus Jimu (22), Tatenda Tanhira (23), Maxwel Mushonga (22) and Chamunorwa Machiongauta (27), Rodney Akende (37), Rodwell Keith Undi (33), Bernard Kaitano (31) and Mugove Chikukwa (25) — have been linked to a spate of robberies and hijackings that have rocked Harare over the past months.
They were arrested while attending the funeral of suspected robber Mushonga, who died in a horrific road accident in Waterfalls a fortnight ago.
Mr Simon Chivizhe of Wintertons legal practitioners had argued that there was no reasonable suspicion that the suspects committed the offence because at the time of their arrest, no witness had been identified.
He submitted that the vehicle used in the commission of the offence had not been recovered, leaving no evidence linking them to the offence.
In one of the cases, the suspects are alleged to have hijacked Solomon Munjaranji on July 26 after they had offered him a lift purporting to be driving to Hatcliffe.
On the day in question, Munjaranji waved down an unmarked black Toyota Raum car along Second Street Extension.
The suspects allegedly pulled over and picked him up.
They initially drove along Second Street Extension and later turned left into Josiah Tongogara Avenue.
At that juncture, the suspects allegedly grabbed Munjaranji by the neck and robbed him of his Sony Ericsson cellphone, a digital camera, shoes and US$180 before dumping him.
It is alleged that police received a tip-off that the suspects were attending Mushonga’s funeral in Mbare and went there to arrest them.
Mushonga was one of the five people who died when the Toyota Raum they were travelling in crashed into an oncoming bus near Zindoga shopping centre in Waterfalls last week, while fleeing arrest.
Police fired gunshots at the funeral to restore order and close the net on the wanted suspects at the drama-filled funeral.
Online Reporter