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Nyore Madzianike Senior Court Reporter

A businessman charged with cruelty against animals after he allegedly hit a horse while chasing another man on accusation of peeping into his yard yesterday challenged the State’s application to have a video showing the incident played in court.

Yitbarek Tekie, through lawyer Mr Oscar Gasva, also challenged the tendering of the video into the court’s record, saying the manner in which the State intended to produce it was not procedural.

He said the State failed to furnish them with the video to prepare for trial as required at law.

Tekie objected to the playing of the video after prosecutor Mr Thomas Chanakira applied that it be played in court for him to lead its witness, John Taylor, who is the complainant in the matter.

“The objection is based on the rules of procedure,” said Mr Gasva.

“An accused must be furnished with all documents and materials that must be used to prepare trial and these must be served before commencement of the trial.

“This is a cardinal rule in terms of procedure. It is meant to inform the accused and place him on position he will be fully aware of the accusation and can be able to prepare his defence.

“This procedure is the one which is catered for in the Constitution for a fair trial.”

Mr Gasva argued that the State wanted to plug loopholes on its weak case by sneaking in new documentary evidence at the midst of the trial.

He questioned the authenticity of the video and raised issues over the witness which the State intended to produce the video through.

He said they were not in the picture on who and how the video was extracted.

“Even if the State says it does not need to produce the video, it has another hurdle to explain why it was not produced at first with other documents,” said Mr Gasva.

“The rights of the accused must be protected.

“We were not given the statement of the person who extracted it and how it was extracted.

“Authenticity of the video is also being challenged.”

Mr Gasva accused the State of trying to use the evidence borrowed from another case, where Tekie was being charged with attempted murder.

Mr Chanakira told the court that Tekie was aware of the existence of the video as it was mentioned in the State outline. He said there was an oversight on the matter of the police officer who was handling the matter after he booked the video as an exhibit.

“It is mentioned in our State outline,” he said.

“They were aware that we wanted to use the footage and this is a deliberate ploy to challenge it being played.”

Mr Chanakira told the court that Tekie was furnished with the video two days before attending the court, as required at law.

“We want the witness to identify the characters in the video,” he said. “There was an oversight on the part of the police as the video was booked as an exhibited.

“When we realised that, we called the defence to come and collect it.”

Harare magistrate Mrs Barbra Mateko is tomorrow expected to determine on whether the video will be played or not.