Harare, Zimbabwe (News of the South)-#ThisFlag frontman Pastor Evan Mawarire has been granted bail by Justice Phiri after his lawyers managed to defeat a state argument that he was a flight risk especially after he as arrested whilst returning from a mini self-imposed exile.
Mawarire, who is accused of subverting a constitutionally elected government, has been ordered to pay $300, surrender his passport and report twice on Mondays and Fridays at Avondale police station.
Justice Phiri dismissed the state’s argument as being weak especially after the state called for a postponement of the bail hearing in the middle of the hearing.
The state, led by Edmore Nyazamba and Tapiwa Kasema of the National Prosecuting Authority, argued that Mawarire had no immediate family locally, after the cleric left his wife and children in the US, and was likely to abscond a case that is worsened by the porous nature of the country’s borders.
It also cited his refusal to disclose his US address as another of his intention to flee again.
However Mawarire’s lawyer Harrison Nkomo managed to counter argue the state saying that the activist had availed himself of his own freewill to the authorities thus there was no need for him for him to fee again.
Nkomo defended several of Mawarire’s charges as being acts protected under the constitution and warranting no arrest for any citizen.
The bail hearing which was supposed to have been held in the morning but failed after the state asked for more time, sees the cleric gaining some modicum of freedom pending trial after he was locked in detention since his arrest on arrival at the Harare International Airport whilst returning from the US.
Justice Phiri has earlier threatened to go ahead with the hearing without the state’s input if it failed to avail its papers by noon today after the morning debacle.
Pastor Mawarire was arrested on Wednesday 01 February upon his return to the country and charged with subverting a constitutional government as defined in Section 22 (2) (a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23.
Other charges of insulting the national flag in contravention of Section 6 of the Flag of Zimbabwe Act Chapter 10:10 and inciting public violence as defined in Section 36 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23 has also been added.
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