HARARE – Investigative journalist Hopewell Chin’ono, who has been arrested three times in as many months, will remain in remand prison a little longer after a High Court judge reserved judgment on his bail appeal on Thursday.

Charged with publishing falsehoods prejudicial to the State and denied freedom by a magistrate on the grounds he has a proclivity for committing more offenses, Chin’ono approached the High Court for relief while challenging his incarceration.

He was arrested alongside opposition MDC Alliance officials Job Sikhala and Fadzayi Mahere after allegedly posting on social media that a police officer enforcing Covid-19 measures had fatally struck a baby with a baton.

Chin’ono’s lawyer, Harrison Nkomo, argued before High Court judge David Foroma that there were no compelling reasons to deny his client bail.

He also submitted that Section 31 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, under which Chin’ono is charged, was struck down years back by the Constitutional Court in a matter brought by Zimbabwe Independent journalists.

“For that ground to be relevant there should be overwhelming evidence of an existing charge. The court should consider whether the charge he is facing exists. In this case, it is non-existent,” Nkomo argued.

“If a statutory provision is declared unconstitutional and struck off by the apex court, it is dead and should never see the light of day. As such, the magistrate denied him bail on a wrong finding.”

The lawyer also argued the magistrate had erred in finding that Chin’ono, an anti-corruption crusader, would likely re-offend if granted bail because his other pending criminal cases are not similar in nature.

However, prosecutors countered and pressed for continued detention, telling the court they had gathered overwhelming evidence against Chin’ono after downloading his social media posts and establishing from the baby’s mother that her tot was not dead as alleged by the defendant.

“The child in question is alive and his tweet (Chin’ono’s) intended to undermine public confidence in the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP). His defense did not challenge that,” the prosecutor charged.

“It is apparent that the alleged offense was committed while Chin’ono was on bail over two other pending charges and the offenses are similar in that they have to do with communication through social media, thus proving propensity.”