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By Daniel Kachere
High Court judge Justice Edith Mushore has granted the temporary release of journalist Hopewell Chin’ono’s passport, enabling him to travel for a scheduled medical procedure abroad.
The passport was released for a period of 21 days.
“The applicant is authorised to travel to South Africa for special medical attention from 18th December 2020 to 7 January 2021,” said Mushore in her ruling.
She allowed Chin’ono to travel not further than Gauteng Province, although he had planned to travel to London where a booking had already been made.
“The High Court of Zimbabwe has agreed to release my passport for 21 days. The State was opposed to the release of the passport. The judge restricted my travel to Gauteng Province. I had secured an appointment in London. So it is back to looking for an appointment in South Africa,” Chin’ono said just after the ruling.
When Chin’ono made the application, the State argued that it was against the interests of justice to grant the release of the passport as he had connections outside the country which could enable him to abscond trial when he is given the chance to leave the country.
His legal team argued that the State’s claims were baseless as Chin’ono had surrendered title deeds to his own house and his very expensive camera, which is being kept by the police.
They further stated that he could not wait to stand trial in order to clear his name.
Prior to the application to get his passport released on medical grounds, Chin’ono had earlier tried to get the passport released to allow him to travel to South Africa upon invitation by the SABC to participate in a roundtable discussion to unpack the importance of the Black Wednesday, a request which the Magistrates Court threw out. Nhau/Indaba
