Anesushushe Mamhute
CHIREDZI – A man who smuggled 84 bales of clothes and eight bags of second-hand footwear from Mozambique and was riven six months of jail time commuted to 147 hours of community service, was last week sent back to custody after he wasted the court’s time trying to arguing for a fine.
Magistrate Geraldine Mutsoto found Munyaradzi Musvosvi (39) guilty of smuggling bales worth US$27 00 before pronouncing the sentence.
When Musvosvi was asked if he had anything to say, he made a request that he be given a fine instead of the community service sentence but failed to give convincing reasons why the court should accept that.
Magistrate Mutsotso said she found no reasonable grounds why Musvosvi should not perform the community service since he was fully able-bodied and had no recorded medical condition.
She then send Musvosvi back to remand prison from where he will come back to court on January 29 for finalisation of the case.
The court heard that on January 18, Musvove together with Philimon Mapako (37), Daniel Jiri (34) and Patrick Chigwedza (28) smuggled 84 bales of second hand clothes and eight bags of footwear from Mozambique via Chikombedzi.
They were later caught in Chikombedzi by intelligence operatives who handed them over to the police.
Musvovi’s three alleged accomplices were not in the court as they pleaded not guilty in their initial appearance and their case will be tried separately.
Innocent Tshuma prosecuted.local
