The five contract killers, allegedly hired by a local businessman to eliminate his business partner, faced a setback when a magistrate dismissed their application opposing placement on remand.
The accused individuals include Moses Monde from Johannesburg, Malvin Manzinde, Malvin Tatenda Nyamuranga, Norbert Muponda, and Joshua Mapuranga, all based in Cape Town, South Africa.
Initially charged with conspiracy to commit murder, they appeared in court last week.
According to H-Metro, the accused filed an application opposing their remand, arguing that the State hadn’t presented reasonable suspicion of their involvement in the offence.
However, in his ruling, presiding magistrate Stanford Mambanje stated that the State had successfully established reasonable suspicion that a murder plot against the complainant was underway, even though it hadn’t yet produced any concrete results. He said:
This is a ruling for an application challenging placement on remand that was filed by the five accused persons in which they argued that no evidence was showing that they travelled from South Africa to kill the complainant.
They questioned where he got the guts to lure his would-be executors if there was, indeed, a plan to murder him.
Every person has the right to liberty which can be limited after one is about to or has committed an offence.
The only justification is when the fact alleged in the State’s papers disclose a criminal offence known at law which should be linked to the accused person in question.
At this stage, we are not looking for high-quality evidence, suspicion based on quality grounds.
A reasonable mind would question if the complainant would make a random pick of strangers and accuse them of planning to kill him without a reasonable explanation.
There’s reasonable suspicion that there was a plot which, unfortunately, didn’t yield results and this isn’t the complainant’s loose imagination, it doesn’t sound like one.
While it’s not proof beyond a reasonable doubt at this stage, there’s reasonable suspicion, the State doesn’t need to prove the charges at this stage.
The five men are back in court on Tuesday to file their bail application.
Prosecutors assert that Obrian Obert Mapurisa, currently evading authorities, engaged in an agreement to acquire Liquified Petroleum gas tankers in Turkey alongside Oliver Tendai Chipindu.
Under the guise of this arrangement, Chipindu provided Mapurisa with a substantial sum of US$800,000 for the acquisition of seven Liquified Petroleum gas tankers.
However, Mapurisa reneged on the deal, failing to deliver the tankers as promised. Subsequently, he allegedly enlisted the services of five hitmen to kill Chipindu.
