FINGERPRINTS SUSPECT RELEASED FROM CUSTODY

MBABANE – Senzo Matsenjwa, who has been accused of deleting fingerprint records of convicts for cash, has capitalised on a mistake committed by the Crown.

The Crown conceded to not taking Matsenjwa to court to answer on the allegations of breaching his conditions of bail following his arrest in the fingerprints case. Instead of having his bail revoked, the Crown opposed his second bail application and he filed an appeal.
The Supreme Court yesterday upheld his appeal of the High Court’s refusal to grant him bail. This means that he has been released from custody.  

Matsenjwa had been denied bail by Judge Cyril Maphanga, after being re-arrested for interfering with Crown witnesses.
During hearing of the matter, Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala said as things stood, Matsenjwa never breached any bail condition. Judge Phesheya Dlamini asked if Matsenjwa’s bail was revoked after the alleged interference with Crown witnesses. The Crown submitted that the suspect’s bail was not revoked because he was re-arrested.

“That is clearly not law. If you are given bail conditions and you violate them, you are taken for processing,” said Judge Phesheya.

Unnecessary

According to Judge Majahenkhaba Dlamini, what the Crown meant was that it was unnecessary to revoke Matsenjwa’s bail because he was already arrested.
Judge Phesheya described this as strange and questioned what was wrong with the bail law in this country.

The chief justice explained it was never proved that he interfered with witnesses and that the allegation still remained.
Judge Phesheya said Matsenjwa had been put in an insidious position not to be able to defend himself against the allegation of interfering with witnesses, yet at the same time he was being denied bail.

Matsenjwa is represented by Machawe Sithole of Sithole and Magagula Attorneys in the matter which the court postponed to today.
His co-accused are Lucky ‘Obama’ Matsenjwa, Appollo Mabila and Elizabeth Matsebula. His bail application was heard by Judge Cyril Maphanga.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: