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Prosper Dembedza Herald Correspondent
Harare magistrate Mrs Vongai Guwuriro Muchuchuti is next week expected to deliver ruling in an application by builder George Katsimberis to have Deputy Prosecutor Mr Micheal Reza recused from handling his fraud case.
Katsimberis in his application argues that Mr Reza was behind the arrest of his chief witness former city of Harare employee Roy Nyabvure.
Nyabvure signed a building plan for Katsimberis to build a showroom in Borrowdale without following due process.
In his written response, Mr Reza said the defence has made an application for his recusal from prosecuting this case without any references.
“I am opposed to the application. As has become the norm in this case, their applications are made without reference to any known statutory provisions. To their credit they have referred to a case law, Mupungu vs Minister of Justice which unfortunately is hopelessly irrelevant,” he said.
He said the above case law refers to the recusal of a judge or a magistrate.
He further wrote that it is trite law that the function of a judge or a magistrate are different from those of a prosecutor.
“Their decisions have different effects in a case in court. For example, it is not the prosecutor who will find the accused guilty or not guilty. It is not the judge or magistrate who will put the charge or withdraw the charge to an accused,” he wrote.
Mr Reza said when he wrote the letter dated October 14 2022, he was not misleading anyone as the facts speaks for themselves and a reading of CRB 241-2/20 will confirm this.
“In that case the trial magistrate Nduna ESQ concluded that Roy cannot be a witness in a case involving the submission of the plans because the plan that was in issue was a fake plan,” he said.
He said the accused and his counsel are really scrapping the bottom of the barrel. They allege that in all cases where Pokugara Properties, Tatiana Aleshina or Kenneth Raydon Sharpe have connections with complainant in this case, I am always the prosecutor.
“In their application in paragraph 5(a) they mention “four cases running concurrently”, add this current case and the case of State vs Tendai Biti, making it six cases. Both counsel and his client are being melodramatic.
They both know that in this current trial I am only prosecuting because the accused person has bullied off all prosecutors who have handled this case.
The matter was initially being jointly prosecuted by Mr E Zinyandu and Miss A Chogumaira. The accused wrote a long letter of complainant falsely accusing the two prosecutors of impropriety despite the fact that they had done nothing wrong. They recused themselves because they felt unsafe,” he said.
Mr Reza said Katsimberis was in the habit of routinely bullying off prosecutors by either making entirely false accusations against the prosecutor or by threatening to cause their arrest, or by actually making police reports against them.
“To date the accused has made police reports against the following prosecutors, Mr. T. Chirambira, Mr. C. Muchemwa, Mr. R. Chikosha and Mr Chesa.
“All of these are prosecutors who have taken part in his prosecution or deposed to affidavits against him. He has bullied off in this case the following prosecutor, Mrs. T. Makiya, Ms. C. Mashingaidze. Mr. Zinyandu and Miss A Chogumaira,” he said.
Mr Reza said in his latest application, Katsimberis threatened him saying that he is going to report him to Zacc but he didn’t indicate what charges he was going to prefer.
He also said he had never in his life spoken with Mr Sharpe
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