Mike Chimombe Acquitted
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has dropped fraud charges against Economic Empowerment Group (EEG) president Mike Chimombe.
The prosecution withdrew the charges on Wednesday saying there was no evidence linking him to the alleged offence.
Chimombe, recently appeared in court charged with defrauding a stand buyer of US$16 900.
Speaking during an interview with The Herald soon after the court appearance, Chimombe’s lawyer Advocate Tapson Dzvetero said his client was now a free man. He said:
The State has made an application to withdraw the charges against my client and the court had to ask and we had to explain.
The court has accepted and exonerated my client and has excused my client.
He is no longer facing any charges and likes what my client has always been saying that there was no legal basis whatsoever to have him brought to court on those flimsy charges.
And those charges in my client’s view trumped up by political rivalry and like any lies, they have very short legs, they won’t run anywhere, it was meant to tarnish my client’s good social standing and good reputation.
And the court has accepted that, so the charges my client was facing were withdrawn before plea and my client has been excused and is now a free man.
Accusations were that between August 5 August 2020 and 10 March this year, Chimombe acted in connivance with Hermysh Katsande and Steven Chimombe, to defraud Brian Marungamise.
Katsande and Chimombe were arrested in July and are already appearing in court on similar charges.
The trio allegedly misrepresented to Marungamise that they were owners and sellers of 18000 Remainder of Lot 12 Tynwald Township, Harare measuring 558 square metres.
Marungamise is said to have paid US$16 900 to Chimombe who, according to the State, knew that he does not own and had no such residential stand.
When it was found the stand was already owned by someone else, he was offered another one in Tynwald, which had also been sold, and then another in Waterfalls.
When that stand also turned out to be already owned, Marungamise reported the matter to the police.
