HARARE – MDC Alliance vice chairman Job Sikhala has asked the High Court for a review of a ruling by Harare magistrate Lazini Ncube placing him on remand.

Sikhala maintains that his arrest was unlawful but the magistrate did not apply his mind while placing him on remand.

The Zengeza West lawmaker argues that the police officers who arrested him had no arrest warrant, rendering the legal processes that followed against him null and void.

The politician is facing charges of inciting the public to commit violence during anti-government protests that were planned for July 31. He was not arrested until August 21, police said because he was on the run, but Sikhala denies this.

“The second respondent (Ncube) was also grossly unreasonable and irrational in that he places the applicant on remand where the facts alleged against him did not disclose an offence and further when it was self-evident that such facts had in fact been embellished and concocted by the state,” Sikhala says.

“In fact, Ncube’s complete failure to consider or apply any of the legal principles given in that case is the highest irregularity.”

Sikhala also argued that it was unfair for the magistrate to uphold prosecution submissions which were not backed by any evidence.

“In the circumstances, the state had the duty to prove that my arrest was permitted by the law. It could only do so through leading evidence of the arresting detail. However, the state declined such an invitation and insisted on having me placed on remand based of the Request for Remand Form 242,” he said.

Sikhala spent a month fighting for his freedom pending trial.

During his bail hearing the police said they arrested him at a house in Harare’s Tynwald Suburb following a chance encounter.

The officers who testified told the court that they were searching for drugs and weapons at the house when they bumped into Sikhala who was hiding in the ceiling.

They told court that they arrested him because he was on the police wanted list.

When he was granted bail, High Court judge Justice Erica Ndewere said Sikhala cannot be blamed for not surrendering himself at the police because the ZRP issued a vague public statement.

The judge said the magistrate also erred in failing to consider that Sikhala’s lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa had visited the police enquiring if her client was wanted, and had been advised that he was not.