Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. One of the key State witnesses in the trial of the suspected killers of Tapiwa Makore Jnr Tuesday disowned the statement recorded by the police.
Ms Julia Kamunda testified in court that she lied so as to suit the police reading of the case after being threatened with unspecified action, The Herald reported.
She was the second witness to testify in the ongoing trial of Tafadzwa Shamba, Tapiwa Makore Snr, Moud Hunidzarira and Thanks Makore.
i). Ms Kamunda said the remains of Tapiwa, a slain seven-year-old Murehwa boy, were found dumped at the homestead of one of the witnesses, Mr Summer Murwira.
iii). She said her son, also listed as a State witness, had told her that he had been sent by Shamba to collect the body from the garden, which he did and handed that body over to Shamba.
iii). She also said she warned her son not to tell anyone about the disappearance of Tapiwa, as the matter was under police investigation.
But she disowned the statement on Monday prompting the lead prosecutor, Mr Albert Masamha, to apply for Ms Kamunda’s impeachment.
Presiding judge Justice Munamato Mutevedzi allowed the application and declared the witness hostile and impeached her. Mutevedzi said:
The prosecution has made sufficient basis for impeachment. Her statement is at variance with what she told the court and the police.
The witness, has been declared as a hostile witness and state is at liberty to cross-examine its witness.
The purpose of impeachment is not to persuade the judicial officer to accept the evidence he or she gave in the original statement but to destroy their reliability as a witness for either side.
The trial of the four accused began on Monday with all the suspects denying the charge.
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