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The State led by Rusape public prosecutor-in-charge, Mr Tirivanhu Mutyasira, said from the evidence presented by the police, it showed that there was no abuse of duty by Mr Joma.
He said the police should have brought Rimayi to court soon after his arrest not to wait for 12 days.

At one time, Mr Joma was jointly charged with Mutare provincial magistrate, Mr Billard Musakwa who had presided over Rimayi’s case, but charges against Mr Musakwa were withdrawn in December, with the State saying the magistrate had no case to answer.

Mr Joma was said to have failed to disclose in court that there were warrants of apprehension against Rimayi in the dockets. The warrants gave the police up to 14 days to detain a suspect upon his arrest.

During Rimayi’s court case, Mr Joma declined to prosecute arguing that the accused had been unlawfully detained by the police for 12 days without proper documentation. Thus, Mr Musakwa who heard the case freed Rimayi because the State had declined to prosecute.

Mr Musakwa also concurred with Mr Joma that it was unlawful on the part of the police to detain a suspect for such a long time without bringing him to court in the absence of documents that supported the long detention.

In withdrawing charges against Mr Joma, Mr Mutyasira said the police should have brought Rimayi to court within reasonable time as cited in Section 34 (3) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act.

The section reads: “A person arrested by virtue of a warrant under this Act shall as soon as possible be brought to a police station or charge office, unless any other place is specially mentioned in the warrant as the place to which such person be brought, and he shall thereafter be brought as soon as possible before a judicial officer upon a charge of the offence mentioned in the warrant.”
Mr Mutyasira said: “There is no law which says the police can detain a person for 14 days and in Rimayi’s case he was not brought before the courts as soon as possible as what the law requires,” he said.
Mutare regional magistrate, Mr Livingstone Chipadza presided over the case while Mr Joma was represented by Mr Blessing Nyamaropa of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.-Manica Post