Suspected illegal money changer Neville Mutsvangwa will spend another weekend in remand prison after the High Court on Friday, 17 May, reserved judgment in his appeal for bail pending trial.
Mutsvangwa and his co-accused Elias Majachani and Simbarashe Tichingana are facing three criminal charges of illegal foreign currency dealings.
He faces a separate charge of contravening the Postal and Telecommunications Act in that he was allegedly found in possession of an unlicensed Starlink router.
Mutsvangwa and his co-accused were denied bail by Harare magistrate Denis Mangosi who remanded them on the foreign currency charges in custody to May 30.
They appealed against this denial of bail and through their legal counsel Josphine Sande took the matter to the High Court.
Justice Esther Muremba heard the appeal for bail and reserved judgment to Wednesday next week.
As reported by The Herald, Sande argued that the prosecution has no case against Mutsvangwa and his co-suspects Majachani and Tichingana.
She said the Magistrates Court misdirected itself in denying bail to Mutsvangwa and his co-accused, arguing that the prosecution hinged its evidence on Visa cards which were seized from Mutsvangwa’s Mount Pleasant home.
Sande submitted that possession of Visa cards is not a crime, and neither is it evidence that someone is involved in illegal dealing with cash or money laundering.
In denying the three accused persons bail, Mangosi said the accused persons could be tempted to abscond.
He also ruled that police found overwhelming evidence that Mumba Money Transfer, a company owned by Mutsvangwa, was an unregistered entity dealing in foreign currency.
The magistrate also considered that the Police had difficulties in arresting Mutsvangwa. He first denied police entry to his Mt Pleasant house and then hid outside his house when police cut his electric fence and climbed over his gate.
