Soldiers granted bail over murder case

Court Reporter
THE three soldiers, who allegedly stabbed a Rusape patron Blessward Shenje to death using a sharp broken bottle, were last Thursday granted bail with reporting conditions by High Court judge Justice Joseph Mafusire. Whatmore Chikukwa (24), Simon Cheziya and Courage Kapfanya (22) were ordered to pay $100 each and ordered to report one per week to the nearest police station and to stay at given address until the matter is finalised.
The trio was represented Mr Maxwell Chiwanza, of Rusape-based Chiwanza and Partners Legal Practitioners.
They are denying the charges.

Bail was opposed on the grounds that they were likely to abscond, commit other offences, interfere with witnesses and to abscond.
Justice Mafusire granted bail.

Mr Chiwanza argued that his clients were gainfully employed by the Zimbabwe National Army and were family men of fixed abode.
He said his clients were not a flight risk since they had no passports, relatives who stay abroad and never attempted as police arrested then at the night club, hours after the incident.

“They have no previous convictions or other pending cases which may show a propensity to commit similar offences on bail. Police allege that the accused assaulted many people at the night club on the date in question, but there is no evidence to support that allegation – no other charges were brought against them except the murder charge.
“They work outside Rusape and there is no likelihood of them interfering with witnesses, at the same time it shall be a bail condition,” said Mr Chiwanza, adding that there was no evidence linking Cheziya and Kapfanya to Shenje’s death.

“There is a general perception at the night club that soldiers are violent and when an incident of violence occurs, patrons blame soldiers.
“The three are known soldiers, and on the fateful evening, were drinking together and when a fight broke outside, Chikukwa tried to stop it, and now finds himself implicated as the perpetrator,” added Mr Chiwanza.

He said Cheziya and Kapfanya were merely implicated “as soldiers” who had been seen in the company of Chikukwa, yet they were not present when Shenje was attacked.
“The offence took place when most people were drunk. The question of identity of persons who perpetrated this offence is crucial and given the circumstances, this is clearly a case of wrong identity.

The applicants remained at the night club and were arrested after Shenje had been attacked. Surely, if the applicants had attacked the deceased in the manner stated, they would not have waited knowing that police will descend on them,” said Mr Chiwanza.
Shenje was attacked in the abdomen and left with intestines in the open.

He was rushed to Parirenyatwa via Rusape General Hospital and died on admission.
An autopsy done on him attributed his death to hypovolemic shock, mesentery artery laceration and stabbed wound.
The autopsy was performed on September 1, 2015 by one Dr Musoni at Parirenyatwa Hospital.

In medical terms, Hypovolemic shock is defined as an emergency condition in which severe blood and fluid loss make the heart unable to pump enough blood to the body.
This type of shock can cause many organs to stop working and is often caused by losing about a fifth or more of the normal amount of blood in one’s body causes, blood loss of this magnitude can be due to bleeding from cuts, other injuries or internal bleeding, such as in the gastrointestinal tract.