Paul Nyathi
Prosecutor Tapiwa Kasema who on Tuesday shocked the country when he allowed High Court Judge Justice Benjamin Chikowero to grant bail to a gang of thugs on Monday has a history of accepting bribes in the past.
Kasema also shot to fame when he was arrested in 2019 on criminal abuse of office charges after he allegedly consented to the release of a passport belonging to former Cabinet minister Ignatius Chombo, who was facing several corruption allegations.
Kasema was arrested by officers from the CID Commercial Crime Division and his docket was being handled by the Anti-Corruption Special Unit department.
Suspected armed robber and gang leader Musa Taj Abdul (47), were granted bail by High Court Judge Justice Benjamin Chikowero on Monday along with co-accused Godfrey Mupamhanga (27), Rudolf Tapiwa Kanhanga (29) and Douglas Mutenda (31) after the state led by Kasema consented to bail.
The gang will fortunately remain in custody as police quickly threw in fresh charges against them.
Before they could post bail money police brought up fresh charges against the suspects and requested that they remain in custody pending their remand hearing on the new charges and further investigations.
In a brief statement, national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi yesterday said: “As far as we are concerned, Musa Taj Abdul is still under remand and if there are any changes, we wait to be advised by the relevant Judiciary department.”
The four were arrested in Beitbridge in August with five others: Charles Lundu (47), Tapiwa Mangoma alias Tapa (27), Innocent Jairosi (32), Prince Makodza (31) and Liberty Mupamhanga (29).
Some had been sought for more than 20 years.
Adbul, Mupamhanga and Mutenda, who have been in custody for about four months, were granted $5 000 bail each by Justice Chikowero, while Kanhanga was released on $2 000 bail.
As part of their bail conditions, they were ordered to reside at their given addresses and report to the police every Friday between 6am and 6pm until the matter has been finalised.
When the alleged robbers appeared before the Harare Magistrates’ Courts in August on several charges of armed robbery, they were escorted by more than 10 police officers from the CID Homicide Unit.
They were not asked to plead when they appeared before Mr Richard Ramaboa who remanded them in custody and were advised to apply for bail at the High Court.