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A DANGAMVURA man who is alleged to have deliberately infected women with HIV was arrested in Harare last weekend and appeared in court.
Liberty Sithole (27) was last seen on April 20 after storming out of Dangamvura-Chikanga legislator, Cde Isau Mupfumi’s office when police had been called to arrest him in connection with the offence of alleged deliberately infecting people with HIV.
Sithole’s case will proceed by way of summons. This was after police had applied to the court for a longer detention for them to do further investigations, but senior Mutare magistrate, Mrs Sekai Chiundura dismissed the application.
In dismissing the application, Mrs Chiundura said there was no evidence to point Sithole as an accused person and there was no warrant of arrest issued when he was arrested and escaped from police custody.
In his defence, Sithole had told the court that he never ran away from police custody and that he was never arrested in connection with the offence.
Sithole said: “The reason why I was in hiding is that I was assaulted by members of the public before I was invited to attend a meeting with Dangamvura-Chikanga legislator, Isau Mupfumi. I only ran away from the meeting because people were threatening to assault me.
“I was not under arrest or given conditions to present myself to any police stations, be it Dangamvura or Mutare Central, therefore I never escaped from police custody.”
The State represented by Mr Brian Goto alleged that the police had no right to detain Sithole for a long time since they had no health documents to prove that Sithole is living with the HIV virus.
Moreso, neither of the victims had also provided their health documents to prove that they were infected by Sithole.
Mr Goto said Sithole would be summoned to court if police were done with their investigations.
One of the alleged victims (name withheld) made a police report on April 21 at Mutare Central Police Station. The crime reference number was given as MCRRB2754690.
Section 79 (1) (b) of the Criminal Codification and Reform Act criminalises wilful infection.
It reads: “Any person who; realising that there is a real risk or possibility that he or she is infected with HIV; intentionally does anything or permits the doing of anything, which he or she knows will infect, or does anything which he or she realises involves a real risk or possibility of infecting another person with HIV, shall be guilty of deliberate transmission of HIV, whether or not he or she is married to that other person, and shall be liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding twenty year.”
In her own written statement, the woman who claimed to have been infected with HIV by Sithole, a copy this paper has in possession, stated that Sithole had concealed his HIV status to her and only discovered that he had gone for HIV testing with another Dangamvura lady where they tested positive.
She said she had been dating Sithole since March 2014.
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