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Court Correspondent
A Zimbabwe Immigration principal officer yesterday appeared in court for unlawfully endorsing a Zimbabwean residence re-entry visa to a Deutsch national so that he would stay in the country as a permanent resident.

Sharon Chinoputsa (30) is facing charges of corruptly endorsing a Zimbabwean residents re-entry visa in violation of section 174[a]of the Criminal law [Codification and Reform] Act Chapter 9:23 and appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Tendai Mahwe.

She will be back in court today for trial.

Allegations are that on February 14, 2013 Chinoputsa was on duty at Immigration Headquarters, Liquenda House manning the Zimbabwe residence permit desk.

The court heard that on the same day, an unknown person arrived at the desk and presented a Deutsch passport belonging to Lutter Claudia.

It is alleged that Chinoputsa endorsed a Zimbabwean Residence re-entry visa valid for 12 months and inscribed her signature on the Zimbabwe Immigration date stamp.

It is the State’s case that Chinoputsa also date stamped a second date stamp and wrote the words “permanent resident of Zimbabwe” just above the stamp before she satisfied herself that Claudia had a permanent resident status. It is alleged that Chinoputsa assumed the powers of a chief Immigration officer without authority.

The permanent resident permit is supposed to be issued by a chief immigration officer after having been satisfied that the foreign national is meeting the requirements set out in statutory instrument 126/2005

The court heard the false visa armed Claudia a Deutsch national to obtain a Zimbabwean national registration document on June 25 2013 as an alien.