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TWO police officers, who made headlines for obstructing the course of justice and were sentenced to 48 months in jail, have been granted bail pending appeal by the Harare High Court.
Justice Rodgers Manyangadze granted Robert Muganhu and David Tawanda Hama $50 000 bail each.
Muganhu and Hama were serving their sentence at Mazowe Prison.
Justice Manyangadze asked the duo’s lawyer if the Appellant court would reduce or set aside the sentence given that the two are cops.
Their lawyer said the conviction was too harsh.
“If found guilty at the Appellant court, community service will be preferred,” said the lawyer.
The lawyer told the court that State witnesses were not consistent in their evidence.
In his submissions, the lawyer said the witnesses were also inconsistent about the quantity of dagga that was recovered.
“Likewise some of the State witnesses alleged that the container was a 10-litre plastic container while other witnesses alleged that the container was a 5-litre plastic container,” submitted the lawyer.
It is the State’s case that sometime in January, a male student from a secondary school was found with a twist of dagga and taken to a police base.
Upon interviewing the schoolboy, the Glendale Police Station officers learnt that he had bought the dagga from Loveness Tsoorai.O
n January 31, the two police officers then arrested Tsoorai.
It was alleged that while at the police base, the trio tempered with the dagga and reduced the quantity of the recovered dagga from Tsoorai.
It was further alleged that when Tsoorai was arrested, the bucket had a significant amount of dagga.
But, when investigations were conducted, only two twists were recovered.
This led to the arrest of the two police officers.
Online Reporter