I saw Mutinta tear warrant – witness

Fri, 07 Apr 2017 11:34:58 +0000

By CHARLES MUSONDA

I SAW Mutinta Mazoka M’membe tear a search warrant, a witness testified yesterday.

Appearing before Magistrate Faides Hamaundu was Mutinta  M’membe who is charged with one count of obstructing police officers.

The witness, ZNBC cameraman Henry Chama, said this happened on February 15, 2017, at plot 7345, Nangwenya road, where he was assigned to capture events there.

Mr. Chama, 37, said police officers arrived in two vehicles carrying some documents and later knocked on the gate, which was opened for them from inside.

“After a while one officer came out and I approached him and identified myself as a ZNBC cameraman. I asked him if I could be allowed to go in and film what was going on. He told me to wait for instructions from his superiors. “While waiting outside I saw a white car park at the gate and a woman disembarked and enter the yard. She asked the policemen what they were doing there. I heard them identifying themselves and I heard her telling them to ‘get out’ whoever they were,” Mr. Chama said.

At that point Mr. Chama  said he started peeping through the gate as it was not fully closed and later sneaked in.

He said a plain-clothed officer presented a document to Mutinta and told her that they had a warrant to be there.

“She grabbed the document and ran towards the house but she didn’t enter and the officers told her to give them back the document. She told them to get out of the yard and that she didn’t care whichever document it was. “She held the document behind her back and later to her mouth. They tried to grab it and then she tore it. At that point I had not started recording and I started filming when the officers told her that she had committed an offence by tearing the document and they were going to take her to the police,” Mr. Chama said.

He said Mutinta resisted but the officers eventually took her outside where she refused to board a police vehicle.

“She sat on the lawn saying she wasn’t going anywhere until she spoke to her lawyers. She made phone calls, some people came and she was later driven away in a police vehicle,” Mr Chama said.

Trial continues next Thursday.