Yesterday, the High Court resumed hearing the bail application for Neville Mutsvangwa, who is accused of engaging in unlawful foreign exchange transactions and possessing an unauthorised Starlink router.
Judge Rogers Manyangadze is the new judge overseeing this case. A decision in the case, which started over, is scheduled for tomorrow.
Mutsvangwa is accused on three counts of unlawful foreign exchange transactions, together with his two associates, Elias Majachani and Simbarashe Tichingana. Mutsvangwa challenged the magistrates court’s initial denial of bail to the High Court for reexamination.
The appeal was delayed because the first judge, Justice Esther Muremba, withdrew her personal recusal on Monday. That following day, she was supposed to deliver a decision.
Ms. Josephine Sande, who was Mutsvangwa’s attorney, contended at the High Court hearing that the prosecution lacked a strong case against her client and his co-accused. She argued that the remand magistrate erred in refusing bail, citing the fact that the Visa cards that were taken from Mutsvangwa’s Mount Pleasant residence are not criminal records and do not prove illicit activity or money laundering.
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Neville Mutsvangwa and his friends posed a flight risk, according to Magistrate Dennis Mangosi, who rejected bail based on a mountain of evidence that suggested Mutsvangwa’s company, Mumba Money Transfer, was an unlicensed business engaged in foreign exchange transactions. Mangosi was especially worried by Mutsvangwa’s first opposition to the police entering his house and his subsequent attempt to hide in order to avoid being arrested.
During the raid on Mutsvangwa’s Mount Pleasant residence, police had to cut through an electric fence and climb over the gate to find him concealed between a precast wall and a pile of sacks containing waste. This evasive behavior contributed to the magistrate’s decision to deny bail.
Furthermore, another team of detectives had raided the Mumba Money Transfer office in the city center, where Majachani was found serving clients. The police recovered US$3,890 in cash, computers, a register of transactions, and over 20 Visa cards.