Judge conducts midnight justice

The Herald

By Felex Share

26 March 2013

HIGH Court judge Justice Charles Hungwe reportedly held a court hearing in the dead of the night at his Darwendale farm when he ordered the release of Harare lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa last week, it has emerged.

The order was allegedly granted in the presence of some court officials and the defence team without representatives from the Attorney-General’s Office.
Highly-placed sources said Justice Hungwe directed the court officials and the defence team to his farm, through an SMS, on the evening of Sunday March 17 before ordering the release of Mtetwa in the early hours of the following day.

Mtetwa had been arrested that Sunday by detectives from the Law and Order section on charges of obstructing the course of justice after she allegedly tried to block the arrest of four MDC-T officials.

The officials had been arrested on allegations of compiling “dockets” against Government officials they accused of being corrupt and they are charged with impersonating the police, possessing articles for criminal use and breaching the Official Secrets Act.

Following the arrest, Advocate Thabani Mpofu, instructed by Mr Harrison Nkomo of Mtetwa and Nyambirayi, made an urgent chamber application seeking Mtetwa’s release.

Justice Hungwe could not be reached for comment yesterday.

This is not the first time such unprocedural things have occurred. Retired High Court Judge Fergus Blackie grabbed the headlines in 1995 when he faced a judiciary inquiry for convening what was dubbed a kangaroo court in Nyamandlovu near Bulawayo at night, to free commercial farmers that had been arrested hours earlier by the police.

The farmers, who were defended by Mr David Coltart, who is now MDC Senator, were re-arrested and later released on bail by a regular court.
The judge was suspended while a three-man tribunal was set up to investigate his conduct.
The independent body found him not guilty of serious misconduct, but ordered him to be reprimanded.

Justice Blackie was again in the limelight in 2001 after he set free two white suspects who had been denied bail by another black judge.
The pair was facing charges of defrauding the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe of over ZW$146 million.
Justice Blackie was arrested in 2002 on charges of breaching the Prevention of Corruption Act after an alleged improper handling of a criminal case involving a white woman.

Sources close to Justice Hungwe’s matter yesterday said in the evening of March 17, a High Court official received a call from Adv Mpofu who informed him that he wanted to make an urgent chamber application.

“The High Court official referred Adv Mpofu to another official who was on duty for him to make arrangements with the judge,” the source said.
“The official then arrived at the High Court at around 7:30pm where he phoned the duty judge who was Justice Hungwe. The judge then directed the court official to bring the record and the applicants to his farm at Darwendale.”

The source said Justice Hungwe sent a text message to the court official giving him directions to his farm.
“The court official then travelled to the Honourable Judge’s farm in the company of the applicant’s lawyers who are namely Advocate Mpofu, Mr Hwacha, Mr Nkomo and two other lawyers from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights,” the source said.

“The court official travelled in one of the lawyer’s vehicle. None of the respondents, including the office of the Attorney-General were present or represented.”
The source said the application, which was brought under a certificate of urgency, was heard and granted at the judge’s farm shortly before the cocks crowed at around midnight.

“The parties travelled back to Harare and arrived at around 1am,” the source said.
“The court official took the record and the applicant’s lawyers to the judge’s farm on the directives of Justice Hungwe and this is also confirmed by text messages sent by Justice Hungwe to the court official, giving directions on how to travel to the farm.”

Another source confirmed that the court official Adv Mpofu had initially phoned, had directed another court official to take over the matter.
The court official Adv Mpofu phoned received the phone call while he was at home and he referred him to another court official, the source added.
Adv Mpofu was told that the said court official would make arrangements for the duty registrar to attend to the matter.

The court official is said to have phoned his superior asking for another judge’s number, saying he had tried Judge Hungwe’s number without success.
The court official was given Justice Chatukuta’s number.

Sources said there was no communication from there until towards 1 am the following morning when the lawyer called the court official saying he wanted him to sign their order which they had been granted.

The court official, however, refused to sign the order and advised his colleague who was present when the order was granted to sign it instead.
Efforts to get comment from the Attorney-General’s Office were fruitless.