Sikhala verdict date in obstruction of justice cha...

Sikhala verdict date in obstruction of justice charge set

Job Sikhala blasted for not doing enough for his Constituency – The Zimbabwe Mail — Zengeza West Legislator Job Sikhala

Gilbert Munetsi

Zengeza West legislator Job Sikhala will have his verdict on the charges he faces of obstruction of justice passed on Friday, April 28.

The presiding legal officer in the case is Harare Regional magistrate, Marevanazvo Gofa.

Sikhala’s trial on Monday, April 3, came to completion and the State is now expected to submit its closing submissions on April 12, while the defense takes the stand to respond on April 20.

Video expert Olaf Koschke, who was summoned to court by Sikhala’s defence counsels Jeremiah Bhamu and Harrison Nkomo, argued the video that the State is basing its case on may have been tempered with since it was uploaded from the internet.

The defence team further stated the State could not produce the original video or the person who did the filming. It therefore could have been edited or tempered with before being published, they further argued.

Koschke’s background is that of a film and television video editor and his resume has seen him work for four decades for a number of television companies worldwide.

Currently, he is employed by UNESCO Film and Television Training Centre as a lecturer. Koschke intimated to the court that the video the State is basing its case on bears a watermark, which suggests 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. 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,” he said.

In demonstrating that sound and picture can be tempered with, he used the same video that the state is basing on as evidence and added a different sound but same picture.

“I downloaded some speech from the internet and replaced it with the sound which is before the court now,” he said.

Sikhala, who has been on remand for more than 250 days facing different charges, has since denied responsibility for the video content and, as an alibi, has told the court he was away in rural Gutu at the time the video is said to have been filmed.