adminHigh Court judge Justice Hlekani Mwayera, sitting with assessors Messrs Chagonda and Chidawanyika, convicted Joseph Chani in a high profile murder case that attracted hordes of people at the Mutare Magistrates’ Courts.
More than 10 police officers were seconded to the court to maintain order as people thronged to hear the verdict. Chani, who had pleaded not guilty, was convicted of murder with constructive intent.
He was slapped with an additional three years after the court found him guilty of assaulting the deceased Tsorosai Kusena’s relatives during the fatal September 23 incident.
The three assault charges were treated as one for purposes of sentencing and the resultant three-year assault sentence will run concurrently with the murder jail term.
Ms Jane-Rose Matsikidze prosecuted, while Harare-based lawyer Mr Takesure Thondhlanga of Thondhlanga and Associates Legal Practitioners represented Chani.
Charges against Chani, who was the officer commanding Camps and Hostels Support Unit Chikurubi before he resigned last month, were that he fatally assaulted Kusena in the Chiadzwa diamond fields as well as assaulting his brothers, Onesai and Pikirayi, and their nephew, John Gwite, after they were apprehended by the police on allegations of illegal panning.
After their arrest, the quartet were handed over to a police base where they were eventually assaulted by the accused using switches.
The State called 13 witnesses who confirmed that Chani assaulted the illegal panners culminating in Kusena’s death.
The witnesses told the court that he used excessive force during the assault which eventually led to the death of Kusena as well as inflicting life threatening injuries on
Onesai, Pikirayi and Gwite. Chani, who had pleaded not guilty to all the counts, told the court that the charges he was facing were cooked up. He said there was a conspiracy within the police force to nail him.
Chani castigated Chief Superintendent Dorcas Nyadenga and some junior police officers for testifying against him, saying the allegations were cooked up.
He told the court that Chief Supt Nyadenga flouted the indications procedures and argued that she was too junior to be involved in “this high-level case” where conspiracy was at play.
Commenting on the pictures of Kusena taken at the scene that showed his swollen body, Chani left the court in stitches when he answered that the doctor made a post-mortem on the wrong person to cook up evidence.
Online Reporter