Harare Magistrate Francis Mapfumo has ruled against an application by the opposition MDC Deputy Chairperson, Tendai Biti to temporarily get his passport in order to facilitate his trip to South Africa where he was invited for mental counselling.
Mapfumo said Biti was only in court following his deportation from Zambia where he had gone to seek political asylum adding that granting his application will jeopardize the interest of justice.
“Accused person is only in court because the Zambian authorities deported him from their country where he had flew to knowing that the police were looking for him,” said Mapfumo.
He also dismissed arguments by Biti’s lawyer, Harrison Nkomo that the accused should be granted his passport because has a lot of properties worth million dollars in the country, saying it is not convincing enough as he had earlier left the said properties and fled to Zambia.
Yesterday, Biti applied to temporarily have his passport to enable him to travel to South Africa and Tunisia.
He was arrested on charges of inciting public violence which resulted in the deaths of six civilians after soldiers opened live bullets against protestors.
