Biti guilty of assault, due for sentencing tomorro...

Biti guilty of assault, due for sentencing tomorrow

Zim Now Writer

Senior Citizens Coalition for Change official and lawyer, Tendai Biti, has been convicted of assault by Harare magistrate, Vongai Guwuriro.

The former Finance Minister in the inclusive government of 2009-13, was found guilty of assaulting businesswoman and investor, Tatiana Aleshina at the Harare Magistrates’ Courts sometime in 2020.

He will be sentenced tomorrow at 10am.

The judgment came after close to four years of trial.

In her ruling, the magistrate said the witnesses corroborated with each other in material facts which strengthened the complainant’s evidence.

Guwuriro said it is not in dispute that the words were uttered on the day in question, adding that the incident happened a long time ago and the witnesses might not remember the exact words as they were said by Biti.

“The accused cannot talk of perpetrators of assault who are not before the court,” she ruled.

She also said that a law that is in existence must be complied with.

“The accused’s strategy of raising constitutional issues on piecemeal has not paid him,” she said. Biti denied, during trial, that he ever assaulted the complainant.