HARARE – A medical doctor at Sally Migabe hospital in Harare is in trouble after he allegedly forged medical affidavits claiming that a Chinese suspect arrested for illegal possession of rhino horns was sick.

The doctor, Simbarashe Michael Mundawaro did this to help the suspect Yang Wang to skip bail.

Mundawaro Friday briefly appeared before Harare magistrate Evelyn Mashavakure who released him on ZW$20,000 bail.

According to the State, on January 16 this year, Wang was arrested for possession of four full Rhino horns, three cut pieces of Rhino horns and 4 x 2kg packs of small cut slices of rhino horns which were in a basket inside his bedroom.

He was taken to court and later released on bail.

The next remand date was March 23.

Prosecutors allege that on 18 March, Yang then approached Mundawaro for assistance so that he skips bail conditions and routine remands.

“Mundawaro allegedly connived with Yang and contrary to or inconsistent with his duties as a public officer, authored a fake letter portraying that Wang Yang aged 59 years with passport number EE9589816 was a patient under his care and management.

“The letter stated that the patient was alleged to have been diagnosed with a bone marrow malignancy (Chronic Myeloid Leukemia) and is under medical follow up at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals.

“Accused person also indicated that Wang Yang wanted to have bone marrow transplant surgery to be performed on him urgently in Zambia, which was false,” reads court papers.

He went on to use a fake Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals date stamp on the letter inscribed the name DR T Moyo with medical qualifications MBChB (UZ) ACLS (AHA) who is non-existent.

Having authored the fake letter, accused person then handed it to Yang who in turn gave the same fake letter to his legal representative Gift Chihuta of Gumbo and Associates Law firm.

Chihuta wrote an application to Harare Magistrate Court requesting the release of Yang’s Passport number EE9589816 and attached the fake letter as proof of Yang’s illness.

The application was lodged to the District Public Prosecutor Tendai Shonhiwa who later sought confirmation from the Investigating Officer namely Dai Maenzanise.

Investigations followed and Mundawaro was arrested.

The recovered authored document is being held as an exhibit.

Zebediah Bofu appeared for the State.

Mundawaro will be back in court on April 25.