PROPERTY developer-cum-musician Energy Mutodi, who had been on trial for allegedly swindling 16 000 civil servants of over $500 000 in a housing scheme run by his company, was on Thursday acquitted by Harare regional magistrate Hosea Mujaya, who ruled that the matter was not criminal, but purely civil.
CHARLES LAITON
SENIOR COURT REPORTER
SENIOR COURT REPORTER
Through his lawyer Charles Chinyama, Mutodi had applied for discharge at the close of the State case, arguing that the National Prosecuting Authority had erred in criminalising what ought to have been a civil case according to the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
In his submission, Chinyama said special notice should be given to the fact that the offences were allegedly committed before the new Constitution came into play.
Chinyama said in terms of Section 49 (2) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, failure to fulfil a contractual obligation cannot lead to the detention or imprisonment of a person.
Mutodi was being jointly charged alongside his firm, National Housing and Development Trust, and one of the firm’s trustees Boniface Chikono. Newsday
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