Prosecutors dropped corruption charges on Monday against a retired white judge who had been arrested and briefly jailed in what the defence argued was an attempt to intimidate judges who rule against the government.
Fergus Blackie (65) who was forced last September to spend three nights in police cells after being arrested in a dawn raid on his home, called Monday’s decsion a ”victory for all who believe in the independence of the judiciary”.
Defence lawyer Firoz Girach said the decision ”vindicates the judge completely and shows there was absolutely no basis for the charge.”
Seven of Zimbabwe’s 30 senior judges quit or retired between 2001 and 2002 after militants supporting the government of President Robert Mugabe invaded the Supreme Court and threatened to kill opponents of the government’s land redistribution programme.
Blackie was accused of being racially biased when he overturned a one-year jail sentence imposed on a white woman convicted of theft. His lawyers said there had been a clerical mix-up in the case.
Sternford Moyo, chairman of the Law Society which represents Zimbabwe’s 500 practicing lawyers, said the arrest of Blackie had been ”very intimidatory of judges.”
Observers from the American Bar Association, the International Bar Association, the International Commission of Jurists and the US Embassy were in court for Monday’s announcement.
Prosecutor Florence Ziyambi told Magistrate Virginia Sithole state legal experts ”has decided to withdraw the matter before plea.”
Under Zimbabwean law, this does not amount to a full acquittal, but defence lawyers say the charges are now effectively dead.
Blackie’s arrest last September followed his imposing a three-month jail sentence on Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa for contempt of the courts in a case involving torture of three US missionaries.
Chinamasa had the sentence speedily annulled after Blackie’s retirement, and police never tried to serve the arrest warrant.
Blackie stepped down after 21 years service as a judge, weeks before his detention.
Blackie said he would be taking legal advice on a possible civil law suit against the state. He was refunded his Z$10 000 bail, now worth only US$4.
Blackie’s case raised an international outcry, increasing concern for the rule of law, following the murder of 200 suspected Mugabe opponents during seizure of white-owned farms and elections for Parliament and the presidency.
Because of alleged gross intimidation of voters and vote rigging, Western observers rejected the legitimacy of the March 2002 presidential poll that gaive the 79-year-old Mugabe another six-year term. – Sapa-AP