THE State has described Harare property developer George Katsimberis' application to have his matter broadcasted live on National television as baseless and lacking merit to qualify for national interest status.
Katsimberis is accused of fraud after he allegedly used a fraudulent building plan to build a show house in Borrowdale.
In his application Katsimberis had cited examples of judges interviews that were beamed live on national television and parliamentary discussion saying his case can also be viewed by the public for them to understand the judicial system.
However, acting deputy Prosecutor General Michael Reza submitted before magistrate Vongai Muchuchuti-Guwuriro that Katsimberis, who was now being represented by Tino Chinyoka, had not filed any application because he failed to cite any statutes on which to base his application.
"There is no application before you, none whatsoever. This court is a creature of statutes; an application is made in terms of laws and sections, but there is nothing like that. When the accused made his application he did not cite any law," Reza submitted.
"So what l would have wanted to see is the section, but they squandered the opportunity and their application is fatal. This application must fall. They want to put nothing on nothing and it will not stand."
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Reza said there is nothing of public or national interest in the matter as the accused is facing fraud for submitting a fake building plan.
"I have searched high and low. There are no foreign interests involved, it's only two individuals, Pokugara versus Katsimberis," Reza said.
He said in his application Katsimberis had admitted that there was adequate news coverage in this case saying it will be useless to bring more channels to cover the fraud case.
"Why then do they want more news channels when they had already said the coverage is large? They further go on to say, it is his subjective assessment of the news coming out that they might be false. This court cannot be bound by his subjective opinion.
All the newspapers in this country have court reporters and all court news in the country are being taken care of."
Reza said they cannot put the fraud case in the same group as parliamentary services and judges interviews since the latter are of national interest.
"We cannot put this case of fraud in the same WhatsApp group with judges interviews, which is of national interest. You cannot compare parliamentary activities and this case of fraud, this is about submitting false plans; what national interest is this? This case does not even measure anybody's waistcoat. This so called application has no merit," Reza said.
Magistrate Muchuchuti-Guwuriro postponed the matter to November 28 for Katsimberis's lawyer to respond.