SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe
Magistrate Elijah Makomo on Tuesday postponed the trial of Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum executive director Abel Chikomo to 22nd November after a second state witness failed to appear in court.
A statement from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said state prosecutors told Makomo that witness Sydney Mhishi, who is also the director of social services in the Ministry of Labour, was ‘attending a funeral.’
Mhishi will be the second state witness to appear before the court, after Constable Chengetai Mugidwa testified at the start of the trial last Wednesday.
Chikomo is facing charges of conducting a survey on transitional justice without registration as required by the law.
It is also alleged that Chikomo instructed two of his subordinates to ‘unlawfully’ source people’s recommendations on what kind of transitional justice they would prefer in the country.
Chikomo was arrested in February 2011 for contravening chapter 17 of the Private and Voluntary Organisations Act.
Since then his trial, which is widely seen as another case of judicial harassment of human rights defenders, has suffered four false starts with the state at one time dropping charges against him.
At the start of the trial last week Chikomo pleaded not guilty.