The wife of the vice-president, Retired General Constantino Chiwenga, Marry Mubaiwa, has been further remanded to the 14th of January 2020 when she appeared for routine remand at the Harare magistrates court on Monday.

Her High Court bail and appeal hearings are set to be heard this Tuesday. Marry Mubaiwa is facing charges of attempted murder of her husband, the vice president Rtd Gen Constantino Chiwenga, externalisation of foreign currency and fraud. Marry has since denied allegations that she tried to kill her husband, the vice president.

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 who was remanded in custody on the 16th of December 2019 is facing charges of attempted murder on vice president Chiwenga, externalisation of foreign currency and fraud.

Mubaiwa told the court through her lawyers that her alleged offence 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, traumatised 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.

— StateMedia