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Court Correspondent

MDC-Alliance legislator Joana Mamombe and Cecilia Chimbiri yesterday appeared in court on allegations of insulting police officers in central Harare.

Mamombe (28) and Chimbiri (32) were facing charges of undermining police authority when they appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Stanford Mambanje.

The pair’s lawyer, Mr Charles Kwaramba, told the court that his clients had their own complaints against the police whom he accused of shouting at them and using obscenities at the time of arrest.

He alleged that his clients were arrested in a “mafia movie style” and were not told why they were being arrested.

“The police did not care as they continued to keep them in detention,” said Mr Kwaramba.

“All the rights in the Constitution were violated and requirement of being informed of their arrest was never done.

“We reserve our right to challenge placement on remand, but will do that in due course. What is important is to seek for liberty of the accused.”

The State applied for consideration of the bail application to be postponed because of time and Mr Mambanje rolled the bail application to today.

The court heard that on Monday, Mamombe was driving an unregistered Toyota Fortuner along Kwame Nkrumah Avenue in Harare side-by-side with a police patrol motor vehicle.

The court heard that the police motor vehicle was carrying some accused persons.

It is alleged that while at the intersection of Kwame Nkrumah Avenue and Sam Nujoma Street the two motor vehicles were stopped by traffic lights.

The court heard that Mamombe and Chimbiri opened their windows and started shouting at the police officers saying: “Police officers leave those accused persons you have arrested because you will infect them with Covid”.

It is alleged that they went on to shout and insult the police officers on duty, leading to their arrest.