The Zimbabwean prosecution authority’s withdrawal of corruption charges against a retired judge was welcomed by the South African legal fraternity on Tuesday.
”The withdrawal of all charges against Judge [Fergus] Blackie fully vindicates the stance of the South African bar,” the General Council of the Bar of SA (GCBSA) said in a statement on Tuesday.
”We welcome the withdrawal of all the charges by the state prosecutors against Judge Blackie who had been wrongly and maliciously charged with corruption whilst doing his work,” the Law Society of South Africa’s joint chairs, Susan Abro and Edward Ngubane, said.
Zimbabwean prosecutors dropped corruption charges against Blackie (65) who, until he was retired shortly before his arrest, was the last white judge on the Zimbabwean bench.
The GCBSA said its member Mike Hellens, SC, had provided pro bono (free of charge) defence for Blackie, as did veteran Zimbabwean human rights lawyer Adrian de Bourbon, SC.
”They submitted a written outline of the defence to the prosecuting authorities in advance of Monday’s hearing, the scheduled commencement of trial,” the BCSA said.
In court on Monday, prosecutor Florence Ziyambi told magistrate Virginia Sithole state legal experts had ”decided to withdraw the matter before plea”.
Under Zimbabwean law, this does not amount to a full acquittal, but defence lawyers said the charges were now effectively dead.
Blackie was forced last September to spend three nights in police cells after being arrested in a dawn raid on his home. He told the news agency Monday’s decision was a ”victory for all who believe in the independence of the judiciary”.
Retired South African appeal court judge John Smallberger attended Blackie’s first court appearance as an observer. Smallberger’s attendance was an initiative of the SA Bar and the Forum of Advocates, a specialist grouping within the International Bar Association of the referral bars of Australia, England and Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Hong Kong, Zimbabwe, Scotland, Namibia and South Africa.
Seven of Zimbabwe’s 30 senior judges resigned 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. Blackie’s arrest came after he imposed a three-month jail sentence on Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa for contempt of the courts in a case involving torture of three United States missionaries.
Chinamasa had the sentence annulled after Blackie’s retirement, and police have yet to attempt 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. Blackie’s case raised international outcry.
Abro and Ngubane said the law society had expressed ”serious concern and alarm” at the manner in which the Zimbabwean judiciary and lawyers had, over the past three years, been intimidated and persecuted by the Mugabe government.
”The (Law Society of SA) says that in order for Zimbabwe to return to normality, the rule of law and the independence of the Judiciary must be restored immediately and assurances given that no undue pressure will be emanating from the government should judges make rulings against the State.” – Sapa