By Justice Clemence Phiri today granted bail to Martha O’Donovan to the tune of $1 000 after the state failed to make a complelling case to deny.
Making his judgement, Justice Phiri found that the applicant represented by Obey Shava and Jeremiah Bamu made a convincing appeal.
By Kudakwashe Pembere
“…a)The applicant will be granted bail of $1000 to the Clerk of Court. b)Should report to the police twice a week between 6am and 6pm to the CID department, c) Should continue staying at her place of residence number 392 Charingira Court, and also the other condition which you had missed out, d) The applicant should surrender her passport and other travelling documents and e) Applicant should not interfere witgh State witnesses,” said the judge.
Justice Phiri said the state could not produce evidence to deny the applicant bail and that it did not counter the revised bail condition. The ruling came after the young lawyer Shava had revealed these were the stringent conditions that were brought about after discussing with the accused.
“The applicant was willing to get more stringent conditions and these are my Lord, The applicant will be granted bail of $1000 to the Clerk of Court. b)Should report to the police twice a week between 6am and 6pm to the CID department, c) Should continue staying at her place of residence number 392 Charingira Court, ” said the judge. “After reading the submissions and the objectives of the Trust to which the accused works for, there is no patent to set a board to subvert government.”
“The applicant told us that her monthly salary is $ 1300 and said she wouldnt mind parting with $1 000 which would leave her with merely nothing.”
Watch Martha O’Donovan’s lawyer speaking after winning the bail appeal
The State Prosecutor Edmore Nyasambo did not challenge the stringent conditions proposed by the applicant. The State also failed to come up with conclusive evidence to which they charged the 25 year old Martha like the Twitter post itself.
Shava also argued that even when the police had confiscated the accused’s laptop and phone, the @Matigari character was still tweeting in the colloquial Shona lingo when in fact Martha is not conversant in that language.
Martha O’Donovan was arrested on 3 November 2017 by the police after she was accused of “insulting” President Robert Mugabe when tweets from the @matigary Twitter account were linked to her IP address. In the tweets she allegedly called Robert Mugabe a “selfish and sick man”.
Watch Comrade fatso, The Magamba network founder speaking after the bail victory
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