Journalist Hopewell Chin’ono says himself and his lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa are going to sue a Magistrate for some “serious misdirection”.
Hopewell Chin’ono was facing charges of inciting public violence ahead of the foiled #31July anti-corruption protests. He was arrested on July 20, and stayed in prison for 45 days.
In an interview with 263times, Hopewell Chin’ono said that he is suing his trial magistrate because he misrepresented facts when he disqualified his lawyer Ms Beatrice Mtetwa from presenting him, and also says that he lied that Mr Chin’ono had not provided the court with oral evidence.
“He removed my lawyer Ms Beatrice Mtetwa using an excuse that she was responsible for a fan Facebook account. She has nothing to do with the account as it is run from America by a fan of hers.
“He lied that i had not provided oral evidence in his ruling yet I had provided 22 pages of the oral evidence.” He said.
When asked about how he is expecting to win the case against the Court using the Judiciary that he perceives as captured, Mr Chin’ono said:
“If you are fighting a court case, you use the only means available to you, and the only means is the judiciary which is here.
“We are going to use the courts at they are the only avenue available to us, its up to the judiciary itself to decide whether it wants to keep exposing itself. The only way we expose them is to keep going to the same court.” He said.
Magistrate Mr Ngoni Nduna had disqualified renowned lawyer Ms Beatrice Mtetwa from representing Chin’ono saying that she was in contempt of court in relation to a letter she allegedly wrote to judicial officers that Nduna said “demean the court severely,” and in relation to comments about the case on the Facebook page of a documentary about Mtetwa’s work, which the state alleged were made by her.
However according to reports, Mtetwa denied making those comments and said she was not responsible for that Facebook page.
Hopewell Chingono’s was granted bail by Justice Tawanda Chitapi.
