MDC Alliance vice president Tendai Biti says a warrant of arrest issued against him today and a subsequent report by state media shows deep levels of state capture in the country.
Biti is facing charges of verbally assaulting controversial Kenneth Raydon Sharpe’s aide Tatiana Aleshina outside the Harare Magistrates court premises on November 30, 2020
In a post on Twitter Monday afternoon, Biti said the warrant of arrest issued at instigation of State Prosecutor Michael Reza was prepaid as it was issued despite having been at the courts “the whole day”.
Magistrate Stanford Mambanje has since cancelled the warrant.
“Despite the fact that I was at court by 8.30 AM, State Prosecutor Michael Reza applied for a warrant of arrest against me in my ongoing persecution engineered by land baron Ken Sharpe. This was a prepaid warrant as the @HeraldZimbabwe was reporting on the same before its issuance.
“In cancelling the Warrant, Magistrate Stanford Mambanje was critical of State position and State lies. It is quite clear the extent of State Capture and the desperate attempt to silence critical alternative voices. We have never been cowards. We never yielded on matters of principle.
“Our struggle is just one. Our struggle is a pure one, is for a just free democratic open Zim in which every citizen will live a happy prosperous life. Neither Mnangagwa nor his political commissars masquerading as prosecutors will stop wheels of change. A new Zim is beckoning.” he said
Biti who is being represented by Alec Muchadehama from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for human Rights is on record seeking recusal of Reza from the case.
He argued that he would not get a fair trial with Reza prosecuting however, Harare Regional magistrate Vongai Guwuriro Muchuchuti dismissed the application.
