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Biti demands prosecutor’s recusal

Biti is accused of manhandling a Russian national Tatiana Aleshina after a court hearing last year. 

Through his lawyer Alec Muchadehama, Biti sought a postponement of the matter to next month for him to avail documents in form of record and a judgment from a previous case which saw Reza being removed from a case he was involved in. 

This follows developments in a previous criminal case against Biti which was handled by magistrates Francis Mapfumo and Gloria Takundwa. 

Muchadehama argued that Reza cannot be part of the prosecution and wanted time to make a full application for his recusal. 

For their application to be successful, Muchadehama said they need to support it with the record of proceedings which contains the ruling made by magistrate Takundwa removing Reza from the case. 

The State represented by Reza and Tafara Chirambira opposed the application, saying the defence was just prolonging the matter. 

Regional magistrate Vongai Muchuchuti-Guwuriro gave a ruling to allow Muchadehama and Biti to obtain the documents which she said were housed at the court. 

Muchadehama told the court that they had obtained part of the documents and the record of proceedings needed time to be availed which the State also opposed as unnecessary. 

The court sought to assist with the retrieval of the record and said the people in custody of the records needed time to transcribe it and had to postpone the matter to today. 

Biti’s lawyer said he will be engaged at the High Court, but his application for postponement to July did not find favour and he is expected to make the application today. 

MDC Alliance vice president Tendai Biti, who is facing assault charges at the Harare Magistrates’ Courts, wants prosecutor Michel Reza removed from the case.