Harare Regional magistrate Marevanazvo Gofa will on the 28th of April pass her verdict on Zengeza West legislator Job Sikhala’s case of obstructing the course of justice.
This follows the completion of trial at the Harare Magistrates Court today.
The State will submit its closing submissions on 12 April 2023 and the defense will respond on 20 April 2023.
Defense lawyers, Harrison Nkomo and Jeremiah Bhamu argue that the video in which the state is basing its allegations on evidence was tempered with since the State did not produce the original video or the person who filmed it.
Nkomo and Bhamu brought a video expert, Olaf Koschke who testified before the court that the videos uploaded on the internet could have been edited before being published.
Koschke who is a film and television video editor and has worked for several television companies globally for over 40years and currently working at UNESCO film and television training centre as a lecturer also told the court that the video which the state is using has a watermark on it meaning it went through a computer where it could have been tempered with.
“In this matter I just want to assist this court in my expertise area,” he said, demonstrating that picture and sound can be tempered with.
In his demonstration, he used the same video that the state is basing on as evidence and added a different sound but same picture.
“The video has a water mark which means it went through a computer because a camera has no water mark which means the video is not original.
“I downloaded some speech from the internet and replaced it with the sound which is before the court now,” he said.
Sikhala disowned the video saying the day the State is alleging that the video was filmed; he was in his rural home in Gutu.
Sikhala has been in Court since June 2022 and is facing a litany of cases.
He has been in pre-trial detention for over 250 days.
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