Crimes and Courts Correspondent<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a significant victory for the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), 15 of its activists have been acquitted of charges related to participating in an unsanctioned gathering in Budiriro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“All the State witnesses failed to link the 15 to the alleged offence,” said Harare magistrate Sharon Rakafa in her ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The activists were part of a larger group of 25, including former MPs Amos Chibaya and Costa Machingauta, who were arrested and charged with inciting violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rakafa noted that some of the accused were arrested while running personal errands unrelated to the alleged meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“None of the witnesses saw the accused wearing CCC T-shirts or chanting party slogans,” she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Magistrate emphasized that the State had to prove the accused acted together to disturb public peace, but lacked evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Without evidence, the accused are entitled to be discharged,” Rakafa ruled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Chibaya was fined $50 for defaulting on his court appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The defense argued that chanting party slogans and singing does not constitute a crime under Zimbabwean law, citing testimony from State witnesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The case will continue on October 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This acquittal is a significant development in the ongoing struggles of Zimbabwe’s opposition parties, highlighting concerns about freedom of assembly and association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zim GBC News\u00a92024<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Crimes and Courts Correspondent In a significant victory for the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), 15 of its activists have been acquitted of charges related to participating in an unsanctioned… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime-and-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4827,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4825\/revisions\/4827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}