Lawyers for Zimbabwean retired judge Fergus Blackie who is facing charges of corruption and obstruction of justice, were on Saturday trying to secure his release through the Zimbabwean High Court.
Blackie’s lawyer Raphael Costa said he hoped to get a release order from the court judge by Saturday night, which would immediately be served on police commissioner Augustine Chihuri and attorney-general Andrew Chigovera.
Blackie (65) was arrested before dawn on Friday and appeared in court when police finally obeyed a court order to produce him in court, after accusations they had been reluctant to do so.
It was the first time in the country’s history that a judge has been arrested. In July Blackie ordered the detention of justice minister Patrick Chinamasa after the minister failed to appear before the judge to answer charges of contempt of court brought against him two years ago by the judiciary.
Police ignored the arrest orders and Chinamasa said Blackie’s ruling ”should not be tolerated”.
Attempts to serve the order at police headquarters for Blackie’s whereabouts on Friday night were allegedly met at gunpoint by armed guards who refused to allow officials access to senior police, lawyers said.
When Blackie was finally brought to court, he appeared still to be shivering after a cold night in a cell in a township police station notorious for its filthy, run-down conditions.
His wife, Adrienne, was in court but appeared to be in distress. Costa claimed that the only food given to Blackie was ”bits and pieces of bread the other prisoners were kind enough to share with him”.
He was returned to the cells at Matapi police station in Mbare township just south of the city centre after his appearance before judge Ben Hlatshawayo and was allowed access to his family who brought him food, said Costa.
The state-controlled daily Herald said that Blackie, one of the most experienced judges in the country’s judiciary, had been arrested on allegations of violating the Prevention of the Corruption Act or the alternative charge of ”defeating the course of justice”.
The Herald said pro-government chief justice Godfrey Chidyausiku had ordered police to open ”criminal investigations” into a ruling Blackie made five months ago.
Chidyausiku was quoted as accusing the judge of ”grossly irregular conduct” in quashing the conviction of a white woman found guilty of stealing from her employer.
The chief justice claimed that Blackie had made the ruling without the consent of another judge who sat in the case with him.
Chidyausiku suggested that it was a case of where a white judge had ”blatantly abused… office” to ensure that a white accused person did not go to jail.
There is no independent confirmation of the report or of details of the case. ? Sapa