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Harare High Court
State v Nkana Simon & 18 Others and 3 other criminal review matters
HH 715-17
Case Details
Court
Harare High Court
Date
27 October 2017
Citation
HH 715-17
Neutral Citation
[2017] ZWHH 715
Outcome
unknown
Case Type
Review
Bench
Presiding
Chigumba J
Full Bench
Chigumba JMatanda-Moyo J
Areas of Law
Criminal procedureEvidenceTrial procedure
Keywords
Section 271 CPEAEssential elementsJoint accusedPlea canvassingRecord keeping
Tags
Criminal reviewPlea of guiltyJoint trialsProcedural irregularity
legislation
Statutes Cited
- Immigration Act 1971
- Extradition Act 1989
- European Convention on Human Rights
- Human Rights Act 1998
- Magistrates' Courts Act 1980
- Supreme Court Act 1981
- Criminal Justice Act 1988
- Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984
- Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002
- Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001
- Extradition Act 2003
ai analysis
Case Summary
Key Issues
- {"issue_text":"Whether s 271(2)(b) of the CPEA requires that essential elements of the offence be put to and recorded from each jointly charged accused person separately rather than through collective questioning","issue_type":"procedural","dispositive":"yes","related_facts":"All four review matters involved jointly charged accused persons who were questioned collectively"}
- {"issue_text":"Whether failure to record individual responses from each accused person constitutes a fatal procedural irregularity","issue_type":"procedural","dispositive":"yes","related_facts":"Trial magistrates recorded blanket responses rather than individual answers"}
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background
Facts of the Case
Background
Four separate criminal cases where jointly charged accused persons pleaded guilty and trial magistrates used collective/generic questioning to canvass essential elements of offences, recording blanket responses rather than individual answers from each accused.
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