‘I was abused’, says Sikhala after High Court quashes his convictions

HARARE – Prominent opposition politician and ex-legislator, Job Sikhala has vowed to get to the bottom of his case after the High Court cleared of any wrongdoing on two criminal charges that kept in in prison for nearly 600 days.

In a ruling on Monday, High Court judges of appeal Pisirayi Kwenda and Benjamin Chikoore quashed two of his convictions for inciting public violence and publishing falsehoods.

The firebrand politician was jointly charged with another opposition lawmaker, Godfrey Sithole.

The pair was handed a wholly suspended two-year prison sentence by Harare magistrate Tafadzwa Miti in January this year.

This was after Sikhala had endured the lengthy imprisonment under a widely condemned pre-trial detention at Chikurubi Maximum Prison, Harare.

Under the conditions of the suspended sentence, Sikhala was ordered not to commit the same offence within the next five years.

Aggrieved by the ruling Sikhala, through his lawyers, Harrison Nkomo and Jeremiah Bamu mounted an appeal which has been upheld by the High Court.

“Whereupon after reading documents filed of record and hearing counsel, it is ordered that the appeal be and is hereby allowed and the appellant’s conviction is quashed,” ruled the judges on Monday.

In his reaction, Sikhala said, “I feel that I have been abused for almost two years in prison. Like what I have always said, that was political persecution, everything that has happened for me to remain in prison for almost two years was political persecution, they wanted to obtain their own political goals over my arbitrary detention at Chikurubi Maximum prison for 595 days.

“I always told the nation and the world that there is not anything that I committed … everything that the state was marketing to the public was false.

“It was only an intention for them to get to me politically and to tell the truth I’m disappointed and I hope my lawyers will go down and sit and consider the suffering that I went through for 595 days when I did not commit any crime.”

 

 

His lawyer Nkomo said all his cases have been cleared.