Controversial property developer George Katsimberis who is facing fraud charges is accused of fraud after he allegedly built a showroom in Borrowdale using a fraudulent building plan has been accused of bullying prosecutors and exposing their security in social media.
This was said by senior prosecutor Michael Reza in his response to the application for his recusal saying Katsimberis is in the habit of raising falsehoods against several prosecutors.
The application for recusal is the third against Reza and several other prosecutors who had handled the case had refused to handle the matters after Katsimberis wrote several complaints which are alleged to be false.
Reza said the defence had made an application for his recusal from prosecuting this case without any references.
“I am opposed to the application. As has become the norm in this case their applications are made without reference to any known statutory provisions. To their credit they have referred to a case law, Mupungu V Minister of Justice which unfortunately is hopelessly irrelevant,” Reza responded.
He said the above case law refers to the recusal of a judge or a magistrate and that it is trite at law that the function of a judge or a judge are different from those of a prosecutor.
“Their decisions have different effects in a case in court for example it is not the prosecutor who will find the accused guilty or not guilty. It is not the judge or magistrate who will put the charge or withdraw the charge to an accused,” he wrote.
Reza said when he wrote the letter dated October 14, 2022 he was not misleading anyone as the facts speaks for themselves and a reading of CRB 241-2/20 will confirm this.
“In that case the trial magistrate Nduna ESQ concluded that Roy Nyabvure cannot be a witness in a case involving the submission of the plans because the plan that was in issue was a fake plan,” he said.
The accused and his counsel were really scrapping the bottom of the barrel, they allege that in all cases where Pokugara Properties, Tatiana Aleshina or Kenneth Raydon Sharpe have connections with complainant in this case, he was always the prosecutor.
“In their application in paragraph 5(a) they mention “four cases running concurrently”, add this current case and the case of S.V. Tendai Biti, making it six cases. Both counsel and his client are being melodramatic. They both know that in this current trial I am only prosecuting because the accused person had bullied off all prosecutors who have handled this case.
“The matter was initially being jointly prosecuted by Ephraim Zinyandu and Audrey Chogumaira. The accused wrote a long letter of complainant falsely accusing the two prosecutors of impropriety, despite the fact that they had done nothing wrong, they recused themselves because they felt unsafe,”he said.
Reza said Katsimberis was always in the habit of routinely bullying off prosecutors by either making entirely false accusations against the prosecutors or by threatening to cause their arrest or by actually making police reports against them.
“To date the accused has made police reports against the following prosecutors, Tafara Chirambira, Charles Muchemwa, R. Chikosha and one Chesa. All of these are prosecutors who have taken part in his prosecution or deposed to affidavits against him. He has also bullied off to his case the following prosecutor, Tinashe Makiya, Cecilia Mashingaidze. Ephraim Zinyandu and Audrey Chogumaira.” He said.
“If l too, were to succumb to his bullying tactics, the only option left would be for the National Prosecuting Authority to fund a prosecutor from another province to come and prosecute him.
“I fully understand the fears of the prosecutors because of person’s easy access to social media where one’s name and reputation can be soiled,” Reza said. – NewsDay
