MOBILE phones belonging to five suspected hitmen accused of plotting to kidnap a Zimbabwean businessman contain incriminating evidence, the court heard on Wednesday.
One of the suspects, O’brian Mapurisa, is the alleged mastermind of the crime.
The five suspected hitmen based in South Africa, were allegedly hired to kidnap a local businessman who had been defrauded of US$800 000 in a botched gas tanks deal by Mapurisa.
Prosecutor Ephraim Zinyandu led evidence from the investigating officer Detective Assistant Inspector Tirivangani Madhibha.
Moses Monde of Johannesburg, Malvin Manzinde, Malvin Tatenda Nyamuranga, Norbert Muponda and Joshua Mapuranga, who are based in Cape Town, are facing allegations of assault and to kidnap businessman Oliver Tendai Chipindu.
Madhibha told the court that during investigations, he was handed two phones belonging to Monde and Manzinde by the arresting team.
“The phones were used to communicate with the mastermind Mapurisa. I later made them sign seizure forms which they did,” he said.
The State applied to tender seizure forms and the cellphones, but the defence counsel, Moffat Makuvatsine, objected on the basis that the exact person who seized the phones was unknown.
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Magistrate Stanford Mambanje, however, ruled in favour of the State allowing the exhibits.
Madhibha also told the court that the phones were withheld as he wanted to establish how the plan was orchestrated leading to the arrest of the accused.
He said the results from the laboratory showed that the accused persons were communicating with Mapurisa.
“I read the messages that were recovered by the cyber lab and some of them include the accused getting instructions of visiting the complainant’s place of residence and his picture among other things,” Madhibha said.
Among the texts, they also discussed how Chipindu was difficult to catch and also had to handle him spiritually to accomplish their mission.
The accused persons, however, denied the charges.
The first and second accused persons also dispute the conversations retrieved from their cellphones.
The accused persons also deny possessing unknown pistols or travelling from South Africa to Zimbabwe to commit the alleged offences.
In their defence, they claim that they were in Zimbabwe at the time and had no intention of committing the crimes and they believe Bernard Chiweshe, an acquaintance of the complainant Oliver Tendai Chipindu, set them up, pretending to offer them work.
