A warrant of arrest has been issued against MDC-Alliance legislator for Harare West, Joana Mamombe after she failed to attend court for trial on charges of faking abduction.
Mamombe is being jointly charged with other MDC-Alliance members, Cecelia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova.
Their lawyer Mr Alec Muchadehama told Harare magistrate Mrs Bianca Makwande that Mamombe failed to attend court, as she was admitted at a health centre in Harare.
Mr Muchadehama said Mamombe’s doctors told him that she was suffering from anxiety problems and could not attend court.
The three are now expected back in court on September 29 for trial.
The trio is facing allegations of communicating and publishing false statements against the State.
It is alleged that the trio choreographed and stage-managed an abduction accusing state security agents of kidnapping and dumping them at Muchapondwa village in Bindura, Mashonaland Central.
On May 13, the trio and other MDC-Alliance youths gathered in Warren Park where they staged a demonstration and on the same date the trio later communicated with their lawyers, family members and friends that they had been arrested by police and held at ZRP Harare Central.
Their legal practitioner reported to the CID law and order inquiring on the arrest of the three only to find out after verifications that the accused had not been arrested.
Two days later, their legal representative contacted the police informing them that the accused persons were found at Muchapondwa Business Centre in Bindura.
The police and the legal representatives went to the scene and collected the accused persons before taking them for medical examinations at a hospital in Waterfalls.
The trio was interviewed and made statements that they had been abducted by members of the police.
These abductions were attracted adverse comments from both local and international community including heads of mission of the European Union, France, German, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden among others and publications of foreign media houses condemning abductions.
