State prosecutor Michael Reza on Thursday made a fool of himself when he pre-empted a court application, Harare East legislator and lawyer Tendai Biti was about to make before Regional Magistrate Vongai Muchuchuti Guwuriro.
Biti is facing allegations of assault emanating from a verbal altercation with a Russian lady Tatiana Aleshina outside Harare Magistrates court in November 2020.
The legislator was seeking referral of his matter to the Constitutional Court had started giving grounds for his application when Reza interrupted and made an application for dismissal of the yet to be tabled application.
Alec Muchadehama who is representing Biti said by pre-empting the evidence, Reza had ruled on what the accused person was going to give as evidence.
“The court has no knowledge of the evidence that the accused person is going to lead in his request for referral to the Constitutional Court so the State can therefore not preempt the evidence that the accused person is going to give in the request for referral.
“He has already determined that what the accused person is going to say is irrelevant and does not meet the requirement in the application for referral, he has already done that. He has also determined that his evidence has no merit without hearing such evidence, in other words he has already dismissed the accused person’s evidence without even hearing it and from the look of things he now wants trial to proceed.
“It is often said that the part to the proceedings must not be the prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner not only has my learned friend rolled himself all in these things but has also mutated into the accused person pretending to know what the accused person was going to say in his evidence. My learned friend must not be allowed to magnify himself into everything,” said Muchadehama.
He added “The accused was making an application and my learned friend is now responding to an application that has not been made. He has already judged that the application has no merit and is now asking the court to dismiss an application that has not been made.
“In another way the State now wants the accused person to make his referral in a particular way which he has not said which way, how, and why because he is saying he must abandon all the six grounds that he has outlined and make a fresh request and he will respond to that fresh request.”
Magistrate Wongai Guwuriro Muchuchuti is expected to make a determination on Monday.
