By A Correspondent- Two men from Karoi and a visiting Chinese citizen who allegedly made arrangements to marry off three underage girls in China by fraudulently acquiring travel documents for them, were yesterday granted bail by a Harare regional magistrate.
Chen Dehu (39), Joseph Rabson (44) and Shame Mafido (47), were remanded out of custody on US$100 bail each on human trafficking charges.
They were represented by Mr Rungano Makuni.
Magistrate Mrs Marehwanazvo Gofa also ordered Chen to surrender his passport at the Clerk of Court.
Chen is Rabson’s son-in-law, and he arrived in the country on October 3 to allegedly recruit teenagers so that he would traffic them to China for child marriages.
The three allegedly connived to recruit the three close relatives of Rabson and Mafido after deceiving them that there was a good educational sponsorship and good work conditions, when in fact they allegedly wanted to marry off the girls to Chinese men.
Prosecuting, Mr Pardon Dziva, alleges that on October 18, the three suspects facilitated transport for the three girls from Karoi to Harare by road and booked a room for them at a lodge where they stayed for four days, awaiting the processing of travel documents.
Since the required age of marriage in China is 20 years, the suspects allegedly fraudulently acquired new birth certificates and national identity documents for two of the girls, who were underage.
Chen, Rabson and Mafido allegedly facilitated the acquisition of a new Zimbabwean passport for the third girl by paying the amount required to achieve total control.
Detectives from CID Counter Terrorism Unit arrested the three suspects at the lodge in Belvedere, Harare, after receiving a tip-off to the effect that underage girls were being harboured.
Investigating officer Detective Constable Stephen Gandidzanwa yesterday strongly opposed bail on the grounds that there was a high likelihood of them influencing the girls not to come to court since they are related.
He said there was strong evidence that the three wanted to marry off the children and produced the necessary certificates from the Registrar General’s office showing the three girls were not already married. The Herald