via Kereke bids to stop rape trial at ConCourt – NewZimbabwe 20/01/2016
ZANU PF legislator Muyaradzi Kereke has approached the Constitutional Court for an order to stop his private prosecution for raping an 11-year-old girl who is his relative.
The Bikita West MP and former adviser to the Central Bank is currently on trial over the charges with the case postponed to 3 February.
On Wednesday he approached the Constitutional Court through attorney James Makiya with an urgent application which cited the Prosecutor General challenging the constitutionality of his private prosecution.
“We wrote a letter (application) to the registrar on 19 January seeking to challenge the case after I meet my client on Sunday afternoon,” Makiya told a full Constitutional Court bench which had asked him to explain the urgency of his application.
Justice Florance Ziyambi, with the consent of the Prosecutor General, then reserved judgement indefinitely.
Kereke’s trial, which is being prosecuted by the complainant’s family lawyer Charles Warara, started on January 11 this year.
The trial started after the country’s top courts ordered Prosecutor-General Johannes Tomana to issue a certificate for private prosecution on the matter.
The order followed an application by the complainant’s guardian, Francis Maramwidze, who sought the arrest and prosecution of Kereke on charges of rape.
According to Maramwidze the rape case was reported in October 2009, but police did nothing about it.
Kereke is being accused of sexually abusing his 11-year-old relative at gunpoint at his home in Vainona, Harare.
When the matter was reported to the police, the docket was then referred to the then Attorney-General’s Office which declined prosecution, saying there was insufficient evidence.
Kereke denies the allegations saying the case is a smear campaign arising from his feud with former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Gideon Gono.
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