Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) boss Henrietta Rushwaya has been acquitted in a case where she was accused of bribing an airport official in a bid to smuggle six kilograms of gold.
Rushwaya had denied the allegations arguing that she never attempted to bribe anyone since she had no money on her on the day in question.
In his ruling Harare magistrate Learnmore Mapiye ruled that the State’s case was too weak for a judicious court to convict.
Speaking after the ruling Rushwaya’s lawyer Peter Pathisani said his client was happy and that the matter had been sensationalised since the day she was arrested.
“Our client has been acquitted. The court made a finding that the state had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt that is the essence of the acquittal for the accused person. You would note that just looking at the evidence in total that the state accused before the court, it was not striking evidence convincing enough that they had a case against our client.
“Which is why we saw it that even she then goes on the stand to give her defence, her side of the story, it was just going to give a final blow to the state case which already was very weak. Yes of course we had to go on our defence to explain why, it was not in dispute that we were at the airport on the day.
“It was also not in dispute that gold was discovered in her bag. But the charge that we were facing was one of bribery and the state had to prove that indeed our client offered the alleged bribe amount. But the state failed to prove that evidence with the witnesses that it called before the courts. There it is a good judgement, it’s a good day for justice especially for our client as you know the matter has been sensationalised from the day that she had been arrested so as a result it’s a happy day for our client,” Pathisani said.
