A stalemate in the prosecution of a Zimbabwean woman, Eleanor Kuedza Tembure, accused of having allegedly killed two people in her home country, still continues months after the case was adjourned.
The case was last adjourned early this year after Francistown Chief Magistrate Loraine Makati Lesang ruled that she could not be extradited before the Court had been given full assurance by the Zimbabwean Directorate of Public Prosecution that, amongst other things, she would not be prosecuted for any other crime other than the one she is wanted for.
After that ruling, the prosecutor of the case, Frederick Mpopang, of the Directorate of Public Prosecution, stated that he had communicated the ruling right away to his Zimbabwean counterparts asking for the needed documents but that he was still waiting for feed back months after making the request.
“I notified them about the ruling immediately after it was passed and asked them to assist but to no avail,” he said.
Mpopang said that at some instances, he had even phoned but that doing so had not helped as well.
According to him, there is no way they can proceed with the extradition trial if the needed assurance is not delivered to them as was requested by the Court and that he is just hoping that they will fulfill the Court’s demands and forward the needed information to enable him to continue with the matter.
During the hearing of the case, Tembure was kept at Francistown’s Center for Illegal Immigrants but some months after the case was adjourned, she was moved out of the Center to Dukwi Refugee Camp, where she is staying now.
The Dukwi Refugee Center currently houses several hundreds of Zimbabwean refugees who fled their country early this year during election campaigns in that country which were marked by high levels of violence aimed against those thought to be supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Dukwi also houses other refugees from countries such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, Angola and Somalia.
