PROMINENT and courageous prosecutor Levison Chikafu, who is still languishing in police cells after being arrested on Thursday in Mutare, says he now fears for his life.
Chikafu was arrested and released on Thursday but re-arrested on the same day on the same allegations of fraud and irregularly granting bail to suspects.
Speaking from a police cell at Mutare Rural Police Station on Saturday, Chikafu said he now feared for his life since the arrest on Thursday.
“These people want to demonise me saying I am a criminal, then isolate and eliminate me. I now fear for my life,” he said.
Chikafu was handling two high profile cases involving the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Patrick Chinamasa and security minister Didymus Mutasa.
He was also trying to have Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operative, Joseph Mwale, prosecuted for his alleged role in the murder of two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activists Talent Mabika and Tichaona Chiminya.
The two were killed in cold blood in 2000 near Murambinda Growth Point.
The police have put an embargo that no one is supposed to communicate or see Chikafu at the station except his lawyer, Chris Ndlovu of Gonese and Ndlovu legal practitioners.
“I am just sleeping in this cell for the past 48 hours and police officer has come to talk to me. They just dumped me here,” he said.
Chikafu said the detectives from the law and order section, who re-arrested him, told him that they had instructions from the police commissioner, Augustine Chihuri, to lock him up.
“Just write that Chikafu wants to know why Chihuri wants him arrested? If he has conscience he would think serious about it. Now I am not allowed to see or talk to my wife, friends and relatives,” said Chikafu.
The former Manicaland area prosecutor, who is now studying at Staff College in Harare, said he suspected that his arrests has more to do with the cases he handled than his alleged criminal accusations.
“The same detectives I had an altercation with and demanded that they produce Mwale’s docket are the same ones who arrested him. Is this a mere coincidence?” queried Chikafu.
Efforts to have Mwale prosecuted have no moved an inch and it is widely believed that the CIO operative is getting political protection from high ranking government officials.
His lawyer, Ndlovu, said by “illegally detaining” Chikafu in a solitary cell, the police want to disorient and cause him so much anguish.
“These people want to cause him as much anguish as possible. They just dumped him there since Thursday and left him to rot. They told me they would take him to court on Monday (tomorrow),” he said.
Ndlovu strongly suspect some political motives in the arrest of his client.
“I can’t rule out political manipulation. Why would detectives from the law and order arrest a fraud suspect? They have to deal with political and security related matters,” he questioned.
When Chikafu was briefly released on Thursday the Attorney General’s Office, the police and Ndlovu had agreed to proceed by way of summons because of lack of evidence.
“The decision was reached by all stakeholders after a clear analysis of the available evidence. When I asked them why they had re-arrested him, they said “we have orders from above’ meaning that there is another hand behind,” said Ndlovu.
He said the detention of Chikafu was a clear sign of intimidation of the judiciary.
Police chief spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed that Chifaku was re-arrested and “had a case to answer.”
“People may say that it is political but I have gone through the papers he has a case to answer. Lets wait for the courts to decide,” said Bvudzijena.
On why he was re-arrested after the release, he said, “It was a gentlemen’s agreement that can be broken.”
He also dismissed the notion that Chikafu was supposed to have been arrested by officers from the fraud squad saying, “a police officer is a police officer even myself from the PR section have arresting powers.”
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