Magistrate in trouble over a cocaine light sentence
The Special Anti-Corruption Unit (SACU) which was assembled by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in 2017 has authorised the police to investigate and arrest a top magistrate in connection with corruption.
The magistrate, Morgan Nemadire, raised concerns when he ordered a Venezuelan national, Delcy Daymar Rodriguez Guererro, to pay a ZWL$700 fine after he was convicted of possessing over 5kg of cocaine worth US$500,000 (ZWL$40m).
Speaking to Business Times this week, SACU head Tabani Mpofu (not Nelson Chamisa’s lawyer) said there has been a strong case of corruption. Mpofu said:
We have since instructed the Police to look into the matter and effect arrest as we believe there is a strong case of corruption there.
There have been delays but an arrest has to be made.
Mpofu earlier wrote to the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Deputy Commissioner General Stephen Mutamba saying the ruling by the magistrate “amounts to an act of corruption.”
He also said that the sentence had “grave implications on the integrity of our entire criminal justice system and the well-being of the economy”
Observers viewed the sentence as not commensurate with the crime committed and also as light compared to three years sentences handed to some convicts in the past for possession of drugs worth less than $10.
–Business Times
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