Marry Chiwenga To Enter 2020 in Jail
Marry has been remanded back in custody to the 14th of January 2020 after appearing in court for routine remand.
Marry first appeared before Harare Magistrate Crispen Mberewere on 16 Dec 2019, she was denied bail & was remanded in custody to 30 December 2019. Her attempted murder charge bail application was also deferred to Tuesday (tomorrow) 31 Dec by the High Court.
She's accused of the attempted murder of her husband and foreign currency exchange violations.
In the 13-page bail application at the High Court, the 38-year-old Mubaiwa denied attempting to kill vice president Chiwenga and said the charges were fabricated.
She also argued that her former husband had brought the murder charges against her in an attempt to force her hand in divorce proceedings that are pending in the high court.
Mubaiwa told the court through her lawyers that her alleged offense occurred when the vice president was already physically frail and nursing injuries sustained in a bomb attack in Bulawayo in June last year.
In denying charges of attempting to murder her husband, Mubaiwa told the high court that Rtd Gen Chiwenga had asked President Emmerson Mnangagwa to make arrangements to have her sent to China, where he was being treated, and also gave her money.
Mubaiwa said in her bail application that President Mnangagwa “even sent his personal security with US$30,000 for her personal upkeep and use”.
All this occurred after July 2019, Mubaiwa’s lawyers told the court, adding that “it is inconceivable that this would have happened had she tried to murder her husband”.
As part of her bail conditions, Mubaiwa said she was willing to pay ZWL$10,000 as a bail deposit, surrender her passport to the court and report once every fortnight on Fridays at Borrowdale Police Station, in Harare.
Her lawyers asked that the former model be released on bail pending the commencement of her trial.
Mubaiwa said she was in poor health, traumatized and had lost weight owing to the ordeal she had endured since being arrested.
Her lawyers told the high court that Mubaiwa was a mother of young children who need their mother’s care. “Pre-trial detention will deny them of that,” they argued.
They added that Mubaiwa had no capacity to flee the country to escape prosecution.
