Source: http://defensewiki.ibj.org/index.php?title=Zimbabwe&diff=prev&oldid=380210
Timestamp: 2019-09-22 18:09:03
Document Index: 122201805

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 1', 'Art 166', 'art 1', 'Art 167', 'art 1', 'Art 166', 'art 1', 'Art 167', 'art 1', 'Art 171', 'art 1', 'Art 171', 'art 2', 'Art 46', 'art 1', 'Art 170', 'Art 115', 'Art 256', 'Art 113', 'Art 113', 'Art 16', 'Art 67']

b)	Supreme Court<ref>Sections 168-169, Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20) Act, 2013</ref>
c)	High Court<ref>Sections 170-171, Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20) Act, 2013</ref>
d)	Labour Court<ref>Sections 172, Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20) Act, 2013</ref>
e)	Administrative Court<ref>Sections 173, Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20) Act, 2013</ref>
f)	Magistrates courts<ref>Sections 174, Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20) Act, 2013</ref>
g)	Customary law courts<ref>Section 162 (g), Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20) Act, 2013</ref>
However the only courts with criminal jurisdiction in Zimbabwe are the following<ref>Section 193, Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20) Act, 2013</ref>:
The Constitutional Court consists of the Chief Justice, the Deputy Chief Justice and five other judges.<ref>Constitution, Chap 8, Part 1, Art 166</ref> This Court is the highest court regarding constitutional matters,<ref>Constitution, Chap 8, Part 1, Art 167(1)(a)</ref> which can include cases of “alleged infringements of a fundamental human right or freedom enshrined in Chapter 4, or concerning the election of a President or Vice-President …”<ref>Constitution, Chap 8, Part 1, Art 166(3)(a)</ref> or the constitutionality of legislation, elections or Presidential obligations.<ref>Constitution, Chap 8, Part 1, Art 167(2)</ref>
The High Court has original jurisdiction over all criminal cases, supervises lower courts and reviews their decisions and decides constitutional cases, except cases which only the Constitutional Court can decide.<ref>Constitution, Chap 8, Part 1, Art 171(1)</ref> The High Court has appellate jurisdiction by Acts of Parliament, <ref>Constitution, Chap 8, Part 1, Art 171(2)</ref> which have established specialised courts for certain types of cases.<ref>Judicial Laws Amendment (Ease of Settling Commercial and Other Disputes) Bill, Part 2, Art 46A(2), 2016</ref> The Court must consist of a Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice and Judge President as well as other appointed judges. <ref>Constitution, Chap 8, Part 1, Art 170</ref>
any immigration officer; any inspector of mines; any chief, within his area; and headman, within his chief’s area; and village head, within the area of his village; and chief’s messenger or headman’s messenger, within the chief’s area; as defined in the Traditional Leaders Act [Chapter 29:17];any other person designated by the Minister by a statutory instrument;” Section 2 Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (Chapter 9:07)</ref> is empowered in general to '''arrest with a warrant''' and '''without a warrant'''<ref>Section 33, Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (Chapter 9:07)</ref>: any person who commits any offence in his presence; any person whom he or she has reasonable grounds to suspect of having committed any of the offences mentioned in the '''First Schedule'''<ref>First Schedule, Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (Chapter 9:07)</ref> or the '''Ninth Schedule'''<ref>Ninth Schedule, Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (Chapter 9:07)</ref> or under the other specific circumstances provided by law.<ref>Section 25, Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (Chapter 9:07)</ref>
c)	Any '''Private Person''' is authorized to arrest any person in whose presence commits or attempts to commit an offence mentioned in the '''First Schedule'''<ref>First Schedule, Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (Chapter 9:07)</ref> or any other person whom he believes on reasonable grounds to have committed an offence and to be escaping; any person whom he or she sees engaged in fighting in a public place in order to prevent such person from continuing the fight.<ref>For fuller details see Sections 27-31A, Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (Chapter 9:07)</ref>
In most cases though arrests for criminal offences are usually carried out by the Zimbabwe Republic Police established in terms of the Constitution of Zimbabwe<ref>Sections 219-223, Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20) Act, 2013</ref> read together with the Police Act (Chapter 11:10).
==In forma pauperis==
==Legal Aid Directorate==
The Legal Aid Directorate is a department in the Ministry of Justice, Legal & Parliamentary Affairs set up in terms of the Legal Aid Act of 1996 (Chapter 7:16). The Legal Aid Directorate is tasked with providing legal aid in criminal and civil litigation, to people who have insufficient means to obtain the services of a legal practitioner on their own.<ref>Sections 8-9 Legal Aid Act (Chapter 7:16)</ref> The Legal Aid Directorate has offices in the largest cities of eight of Zimbabwe’s provinces (Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Mutare, Masvingo, Bindura, Chinhoyi and Gwanda).
If a defendant requests an attorney during interrogation, police must stop the interrogation until the defendant has been able to consult his or her attorney <ref> Slatter & Ors 1983 (2) ZLR 144 (H)</ref>. A statement made during interrogation must be confirmed by a magistrate in order to be admitted at trial. Once confirmed, this becomes difficult to challenge at trial.
====Trial====
The defense lawyer has the right to cross-examine State witnesses. Statements to police may be admitted only if freely and voluntarily made without undue influence<ref> CPEA section 256</ref>. If produced before a Magistrate, the confession requires no further proof of admissibility although defense may still challenge the confession as the product of undue influence.
The defense lawyer has the right to cross-examine State witnesses (Legal Aid Act, Art 115A(4)(a)). Statements to police may be admitted only if freely and voluntarily made without undue influence<ref>Legal Aid Act, Art 256(1)</ref>. The prosecutor can apply to the magistrate to confirm any statement made freely and voluntarily by the accused.<ref>Legal Aid Act, Art 113(1)-(3)</ref> If the accused claims that he did not make the statement or he did not make the statement freely and voluntarily, the magistrate will investigate further to decide whether to admit the statement.<ref>Legal Aid Act, Art 113(4)</ref>
In Zimbabwe, the court should scrutinize identification evidence and when it is poor, should require corroboration or support. <ref> Nkomo & Anor, 1989 (3) ZLR 117 (S)</ref>
The Prosecutor-General can refuse to allow the state to pursue a case if “there is no possibility (or only a remote possibility) of proving the charge against the accused beyond a reasonable doubt.”<ref>Legal Aid Act, Art 16(3)(b)</ref> The testimony of one witness alone will not meet the state’s burden of proof in cases of perjury and treason. If the defendant does not mention a relevant fact to their defence as requested by the court, the prosecution and court can draw relevant inferences from the failure to mention the fact and treat these inferences as corroborating other evidence.<ref>Legal Aid Act, Part VII, Art 67(2)</ref>
==Post-Conviction==
====Post-Conviction====
==Minimum age of criminal responsibility==
A child below the age of seven years shall be deemed to lack criminal capacity and shall not be tried for or convicted of any crime which he or she is alleged to have committed before attaining that age; whilst over the age of seven years but below the age of fourteen years at the time of the conduct constituting any crime which he or she is alleged to have committed shall be presumed, unless the contrary is proved beyond a reasonable doubt.<ref>Sections 6-8, Criminal Codification and Reform Act (Chapter 9:23)</ref>
==Degree and burden of proof in criminal cases==
Every accused person is presumed innocent and the onus/burden to prove guilt is on the state/prosecution to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.<ref>Section 18, Criminal Codification and Reform Act (Chapter 9:23)</ref>
==''Nullum crimen sine lege and Nulla poena sine lege''==
No person should face criminal punishment except for an act that was criminalized by law before he/she performed the act and one cannot be punished for doing something that is not prohibited by law.<ref>Section 9, Criminal Codification and Reform Act (Chapter 9:23)</ref>
==Entitlement to bail==
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Zimbabwe has 46 main prisons with an official total holding capacity of 17000 inmates and according to the official statistics compiled in 2019 the occupancy level was 114% with a total prison population of 19.382 inmates as of April 2019. 18.6% of the inmates are pre-trial detainees / remand prisoners; 2.4% are female prisoners; 0.6% are juveniles / minors / young prisoners under the age of 18; 1.9% are foreign prisoners.<ref>http://www.prisonstudies.org/country/zimbabwe</ref>
==Police ranking==
The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) was ranked at position 102 out of 127 nations with regard to the ability of security bodies to render security services. <ref>http://www.ipsa-police.org/Images/uploaded/Pdf%20file/WISPI%20Report.pdf</ref>
==Corruption ranking==
Zimbabwe in 2017 was 157 out of 180 states in terms of perceptions of public sector corruption.<ref>https://www.transparency.org/country/ZWE</ref>
==Rule of law ranking==
Zimbabwe is ranked 17 out of 18 states regionally and 108 out of 113 states global in relation to rule of law adherence.<ref>http://data.worldjusticeproject.org/#/groups/ZWE</ref>
==Global peace ranking==
Zimbabwe is ranked 124 out of 163 states in relation to the state of peace using three thematic domains: the level of Societal Safety and Security; the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict; and the degree of Militarisation.<ref>https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Global-Peace-Index-2018-2.pdf</ref>
==Fragile States ranking==
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