SUSPENDED Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) president Henrietta Rushwaya and her three alleged accomplices in the gold smuggling case were yesterday denied bail by Harare magistrate Ngoni Nduna who remanded the matter to November 27.
Their Pakistani accomplice, Ali Muhammad, who was said to be the owner of the 6kg of gold intercepted at the Robert Mugabe International Airport a fortnight ago, was however released on $100 000 bail.
Nduna ruled that there were no compelling reasons to deny Muhammad bail since he was not mentioned as having attempted to obstruct the course of justice.
Rushwaya, two Central Intelligence Organisation operatives Stephen Tserayi and Raphinos Mufandauya and her ZMF colleague Gift Karanda were denied bail on the basis that they were likely to abscond trial as they had connections abroad and means to flee the country. The five are being jointly charged for smuggling, illegal possession of gold, criminal abuse of office and defeating the course of justice.
