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Prosper Dembedza
Herald Correspondent
Deputy Prosecutor Mr Micheal Reza today filed his response to an application by builder George Katsimberis who wants him recused from his fraud case.
In his application Katsimberis complained that Mr Reza caused the arrest of his chief witness former city of Harare chief building inspector Roy Nyabvure after reporting to the police that he had finished giving testimony.
Nyabvure was then arrested for approving building plans without following due procedure.
In his response Mr Reza said Katsimberis was in the habit of bullying prosecutors through fabricating falsehoods against them.
The response is the third recusal filed by Katsimberis last week.
In his written response Mr Reza said the defense 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 V Minister of Justice which unfortunately is hopelessly irrelevant.
He further wrote that it is trite law that the function of a judge or a magistrate is 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 in issue was a fake plan,” he said.
He said the accused and his counsel are scraping the bottom of the barrel.
“They allege that in all cases where Pokugara Properties, Tatiana Aleshina or Kenneth Raydon Sharpe have connections with the 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 versus 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,” argued Mr Reza.
The matter was initially jointly prosecuted by Mr. E Zinyandu and Miss A Chogumaira. The accused wrote a long letter of complaint falsely accusing the two prosecutors of impropriety, despite the fact that they had done nothing wrong.
“They recused themselves because they felt unsafe.”
Mr Reza said Katsimberis was in the habit of routinely bullying off prosecutors by either making false accusations against the prosecutor, threatening to cause their arrest, or actually making police reports against them.
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