This means they will have to return to remand prison. The seven struggled to get bail and were held in remand prison for nine months, before the Supreme Court gave them their freedom last week.
The activists are part of a group of 29, who were arrested on allegations of having participated in the murder of Petros Mutedza in Glen View last year.Charles Kwaramba, a lawyer representing some of the accused, confirmed that the MDC-T activists will be indicted on Thursday, meaning their bail conditions will be revoked.
“When they next appear at the Magistrates Court, their bail conditions will cease, meaning they will have to return to remand prison,” he said. Kwaramba said the Magistrates Court did not have jurisdiction over murder cases and the trial would be starting anew at the High Court, meaning that the activists will have to re-apply for bail.
Kwaramba said the Attorney General’s Office was likely to argue against bail on the basis that since the activists now knew of their trial date, they were likely to skip bail.“But since they have been given bail it demonstrates that they can be trusted and the High Court should grant them bail again,” Kwaramba said.
Meanwhile, close to 200 MDC-T activists were arrested in Matabeleland South yesterday as they were conducting some educational programmes in their structures. The party’s organising secretary Nelson Chamisa said: “We are carrying out countrywide political education programmes on leadership and we had meetings in Matabeleland South.”
“Among those arrested are Beitbridge district chairperson Daniel Mkhwananzi, his deputy Elliot Chidzingwa and trainers from our head office,” he said.
