adminJustice Bhunu, however, indicated that the 29 suspects, who have been in custody for over a year, had very slim chances of getting bail from the superior court.
“It is accordingly ordered that the application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court be and is hereby granted.
“I am constrained to remark that the application is essentially chasing a moving target as the trial is in progress.
“The application therefore to me seems like a person chasing his own shadow or a dog chasing its own tail.
“It is envisaged that by the time the matter may come up for determination in the Supreme Court, the case might have adopted a completely different complexion from what obtains at the present moment.
“This real eventuality might make it difficult, if not inappropriate, for the Supreme Court to determine the matter without reference to the trial court that will be seized with all the facts and evidence as at the time the Supreme Court comes to determine the matter,” the judge said.
Justice Bhunu last week dismissed the group’s bail application because they had failed to discharge the onus of proving on a balance of probabilities that they are entitled to bail.
The court found that Section 117(6) of the Criminal Procedure and evidence Act requires an accused person alleged to have killed a law enforcement officer on duty to adduce evidence, which justifies the existence of exceptional circumstances.
The defence team led by Mr Selby Hwacha of Dube, Manikai and Hwacha is set to challenge the Constitutionality of the section in question.
They also seek to challenge the judge’s interpretation of the law when he threw out the defence’s argument that the defence outlines tendered by the suspects was a form of adduced evidence to establish exceptional circumstances. Justice Bhunu indefinitely postponed the trial.
Online Reporter