Mary Mubaiwa’s Lawyers To File A Bail Application Today
Lawyers representing Marry Mubaiwa, the estranged wife of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, are expected to file a bail application in the High Court today challenging the decision by the magistrate’s court to deny her bail.
Mubaiwa was on Monday remanded in custody to December 30 by Mr. Chrispen Mberewere after being charged with attempted murder, fraud and foreign currency externalization.
Mr. Taona Nyamakura of Mtetwa and Nyambirai Legal Practitioners, who is representing Mubaiwa, confirmed the development yesterday.
“We wanted to file the bail application today (yesterday) but could not because we failed to get the record of proceedings from the Magistrates Court together with the ruling, which we wanted to attach to our application,” he said.
“We are, therefore, going to file it tomorrow (today) without those papers because we heard that some of the papers would only be available by Friday.”
Mubaiwa is being charged with attempting to murder VP Chiwenga, illegally externalizing US$1 033 000, laundering US$990 000 and fraudulently seeking to upgrade their customary union to a civil marriage without her husband’s consent.
The attempted murder charge arose from the time she accompanied VP Chiwenga to South Africa in July for urgent medical attention.
Mubaiwa allegedly refused to let him be admitted to the hospital for 24 hours until security personnel intervened.
She then allegedly visited VP Chiwenga in hospital, dismissed his security staff and removed the intravenous giving set and the central venous catheter.
The court was also told that Mubaiwa was being investigated on charges of taking daily allowances of her aides on foreign trips and vehicles won by models in the Miss Zimbabwe pageant were registered in her name.
Investigations are also focusing on how she handled funds for a charity organization, the Musha Mukadzi Zimbabwe Armed Forces Foundation (MZAFF).
Mubaiwa was not asked to plead to the four charges when she appeared before Mr. Mberewere, who remanded her in custody to December 30.
On the attempted murder case, Mr. Mberewere advised Mubaiwa to apply for bail at the High Court, which has jurisdiction over such serious offenses.
With regards to fraud, externalization of funds and money laundering charges, Mr. Mberewere denied Mubaiwa bail on the basis that she was a flight risk.
