By DIONNE KANYOWA
THE High Court has refused to release Vice president Constantino Chiwenga’s estranged wife, Marry Mubaiwa’s passport after she sought permission to go to South Africa to seek medical attention.
Mubaiwa, who wants medical attention on her right arm that could be amputated due to gangrenez is facing three criminal charges of assault, money laundering and attempted murder.
Although she was granted bail on all charges , one of the bail conditions is that her passport must be held by the clerk of court pending finalisation of the matters.
It was against this background that she approached the High Court on an urgent basis last month asking to have her passport released so that she could travel to South Africa.
However, Justice Owen Tagu on Wednesday dismissed the application saying , “the judge or magistrate who granted the applicant (Mary) bail and bail conditions are better placed to entertain this application”.
“In my view , as stated by the respondent (State) this application is improperly before the court .
“It is not necessary to labour this court with this urgent application when the right court is in existence and operative .”
In her application, Mubaiwa had said that s a doctor identified as Dr Muchuweti had recommended that her right arm be amputated as there was a gangrene that had set in.
Mubaiwa added that she declined the amputation and sought to have a second medical opinion on the condition of her right arm in South Africa for at least six weeks.
But State argued that Mubaiwa had failed to attach a copy of the bail conditions that she wanted altered to her application and also that she had approached the wrong court as the matter was supposed to have been heard in a bail court.
Mubaiwa who was recently convicted of fraud for allegedly lying that the then hospitalised Chiwenga had consented to their marriage.
Marry is alleged to have tampered with the medical equipment in Chiwenga’s hospital room in South Africa and tried to move him from the hospital room to another place in a manner that could have been fatal.
She also stands accused of assaulting her baby minder as well externalising funds worth over US$900 000 under the guise of importing goods whilst she was still together with Chiwenga. – Xinhua