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Prosper Dembedza Herald Correspondent

The longest assault case in the court history of Zimbabwe finally kicked off last Friday with businesswoman Mrs Tatiana Aleshina narrating how she was assaulted by Tendai Biti.

A visibly emotional Mrs Aleshina nearly wept in court last Friday as she was narrating how she was assaulted by the CCC vice president sometime in 2020.

Mrs Aleshina told the court that she froze when the opposition legislator charged towards her and felt he will physically attack her.

“As we were walking in the corridor l suddenly heard big noise and shouting behind my back,” she said.

Mrs Aleshina said she then immediately stopped in shock only to see a huge giant person, Tendai Biti with a crowd of people charging towards her.

While evidence was led by Deputy Prosecutor General Mr Michael Reza, Aleshina said she had never came across that type of unruly behaviour in all her life.

She told the court that Biti was aggressive and pointing his finger at her face while shouting “you stupid stupid stupid idiot and was shaking his body in an aggressive and angry way.

“I did not understand what was going on and I asked him are you talking to me ” she asked, “but Biti continued his unruly behaviour shouting and pointing at my face. After that my colleague Michael Van Blerk then tried to protect me and stood in front of me, but someone said it’s not right, it’s dangerous here and you need to go” Aleshina told the court.

Mr Reza asked Aleshina to describe how she felt in that situation and she explained: “I felt he would physically hit me. I believed in that moment I was in danger. I thought he could kill me. I was shaken and humiliated and disturbed.”

Aleshina said after the incident she felt confused and she wondered around the court for some minutes looking for exit point.

“On my out someone asked me why Biti was shouting at me and l couldn’t answer that. Someone else also said Biti can’t treat women like that you need to report him to police. I decided to go to the Russian Embassy and tell them what happened. They calmed me down and advised me to go to the police to report the matter.”

She said while at the police she discovered that her half body was numb and could not move even her hand to sign. Then the police offered to assist her to go to Harare hospital but she then instead ended up being taken to Borrowdale Trauma Centre where she got treatment and was not in a good condition. She was put on a drip and admitted to the bed ward.

Magistrate Vongai Muchuchuti-Guwuriro postponed the matter to Thursday this week for continuation of trial.

The trial took place after long arguments with Biti’s defence lawyer Alec Muchadehama who wanted to file another application for referral to the Constitutional Court after the other one had been dismissed.

Magistrate Muchuchuti-Guwuriro had dismissed another application for her recusal by Biti saying this was a bid to delay the trial.

However Biti refused to plead saying he did not want to be subjected to a trial of a charge which is defective.

He later presented his defence to the charge saying there was no distinction between the insults in the charge sheet or associated with assault.

When the magistrate asked him to plead he further said he could not plead or be subjected to the trial on provisions that is unconstitutional saying it violated his constitutional right.