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Prosper Dembedza Herald Correspondent

Harare magistrate Mr Stanford Mambanje has deferred to April 10 the matter for two men from Karoi and a Chinese national who allegedly made arrangements for marrying off three underage girls to China by fraudulently acquiring travelling documents for them.

Chen Dehu (39), Joseph Rabson (44) and Shame Mafido (47) are facing human trafficking charges.

Chen is a son-in-law of Rabson and he allegedly came into the country on October 3 for the sole purpose of recruiting victims so that he would traffic them to China for child marriage.

The three connived to recruit the three girls after deceiving them that there was good educational sponsorship and good work conditions when in fact they wanted to marry them off to Chinese nationals.

Rabson and Mafido are close relatives to the girls.

Prosecuting, Mr Pardon Dziva, alleges that on October 18, the three accused facilitated the transportation of the three girls from Karoi to Harare by road and booked a room for them at a lodge where they stayed for four days waiting for the processing of travel documents.

Since the required age of marriage in China is 20 years, the accused persons fraudulently acquired new birth certificates and national identity document for the two girls who were underage.

The trio facilitated the acquisition of a new Zimbabwean passport for the third victim by paying the amount required to achieve total control.

Detectives from CID Counter Terrorism Unit arrested the three accused at the lodge in Belvedere, Harare, after receiving a tip-off to the effect that underage girls were being harboured.