HARARE – Lawyers for vice president Constantino Chiwenga’s ex-wife Marry Mubaiwa applied for discharge on Thursday after the prosecution rested in her assault trial.
Lawyers said the state had failed to make a case against the 40-year-old ex-model who is accused of assaulting her former child minder, Delight Munyoro, back in December 2019.
Mubaiwa’s lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa told magistrate Learnmore Mapiye that “no reasonable court would convict my client on the basis of the information provided by the state.”
“No evidence of the assault was put forward,” Mtetwa said, as she asked the magistrate to end Mtetwa’s prosecution without putting her to her defence.
Mapiye said he would give his ruling on July 27. He advised Mtetwa to file written arguments by July 11, and the National Prosecuting Authority to respond by July 22.
The alleged incident at Hellenic School in Borrowdale took place in December 2020, but Munyoro did not file a police complaint until January 2021, a few days after the High Court ordered Chiwenga to surrender custody of their three minor children he had taken while she languished in remand prison charged with his attempted murder, fraud and money laundering.
Mubaiwa had gone to the school to see two of her children, but Munyoro allegedly stood in her way.
The child minder claimed Mubaiwa hit her on the cheek with the back of her hand, loosening some of her teeth.
However, when she gave her testimony, Munyoro could not give the court a coherent narration of events. Mtetwa told her she had been put up to make false allegations against Mubaiwa by Chiwenga.
The trial heard that Mubaiwa’s hands are swollen and it was highly unlikely she would inflict the kind of damage Munyoro claimed. The child minder maintained that it was a ring she was wearing that hurt her.
Munyoro said she was treated by a private doctor but could not remember his name or where his surgery is located.
Mubaiwa was given a suspended sentence in April after a court convicted her of fraudulently trying to upgrade her marriage to Chiwenga as he lay sick in 2019.
She is also on trial for Chiwenga’s attempted murder and money laundering. She protests her innocence, accusing the former army general of mounting the charges in order to gain custody of their children.
