Neville Mutsvangwa, accomplices to spend weekend b...

Neville Mutsvangwa, accomplices to spend weekend behind bars

**Neville Mutsvangwa boards a prison truck at the Harare MAgistrates Courts en route to remand prison**

Zim Now Writer

Neville Mutsvangwa and his two accomplices, who appeared in court yesterday, facing charges of contravening the Bank Use Promotion and Suppression of Money Laundering Act were remanded in custody to next week for continuation of their bail hearing.

Mutsvangwa, 44, appeared before magistrate Dennis Mangosi at the Harare Magistrates’ Courts, together with Elias Majachani, 45, of Kambuzuma and Simbarashe Tichingana, 35, of Chitungwiza, charged with money laundering and foreign currency dealing.

Mutsvangwa is also facing another charge of breaching the Telecommunications Act after he was found with a Starlink router without a licence.

The State, through prosecutor Thomas Chanakira, in denying bail for the accused, said they were not facing a trivial matter.

He said the accused would pay an amount exceeding ZiG500 000 for the Money Laundering charge if convicted or money with the value of the property involved and imprisonment of 25 years or both fine and imprisonment.

The prosecutor also informed the court that Mustvangwa had denied entry to the police when they went to his premises.

“The accused are a flight risk. Mutsvangwa has already demonstrated propensity to flee and this warrants his incarceration pending trial.

“They had to seek the assistance of ZRP Marlborough and were again denied entry into his premises.

“The police officers had to apply minimum force and gained entry into the premises by cutting the electric fence and scaling the gate.

“The officers conducted searches but could not find him.

“They continued searching the whole yard only to find Mutsvangwa hiding in-between the security wall and some sacks stashed with waste materials.

“There is no justification why he was hiding. There is no justification why he was not cooperating with the police. That is indicative of his unwillingness to stand trial.

“It is sufficient indication that if given a chance, the accused will flee the jurisdiction of this court to avoid trial,” he said.

Chanakira added that awarding bail to the accused would be equivalent to licensing them to flee.

He also submitted that the accused had foreign bank accounts

“We submit that the accused have connections and interests outside Zimbabwe as evidenced by foreign bank accounts that they hold.

“An Estonian identity card was discovered on Mutsvangwa so, the State is of the belief that if granted bail, the accused will evade this court’s jurisdiction,” he said.

He also urged the court to take a judicial notice on the porousness of borders, stating that people can easily travel even without the required documents.

According to Chanakira, 10 visa cards from South Africa, three from Zambia, one from Mozambique were found, which reinforces the State’s fear of them absconding trial.

He told the court of the likelihood of interference with witnesses and investigations because among the gadgets they seized were cellphones, laptops, sim cards, and POS machine and debit cards, which if released, the accused will wipe all the data away, even without being in physical possession of the gadgets.

He said the suspects will know the whereabouts of the witnesses in their case by relying on cash registers and might interfere.

The investigating officer said when they got to Mutsvangwa’s residence, they were made to wait for around 45 minutes.

“When I pressed the intercom I was answered by Mutsvangwa’s wife. I could hear a voice in the background giving instructions,” he said.

He said when the wife came, she recorded his name, force number and car registration, stating that she was going to verify if the officers were genuine or not.

They then went to Marlborough Police Station after waiting for that long period and brought an officer who was in uniform but were still refused entry until the Officer-in-Charge, Marlborough Police Station came.

However, that also did not solve anything, resulting in the officers using force.

He said they waited for more than four and a half hours before they did that.

Mutsvangwa was later found hiding in refuse.