Maguwu, who was denied bail by the High Court only two days ago, appears before Magistrate Don Ndirowei for a routine remand hearing.
Maguwu’s lawyer, Tinoziva Bere, said Ndirowei had said in an earlier ruling that he would consider releasing the rights activist on bail once police finish their investigations.
“The prosecution told the court then that the police will have completed their investigations by June 22, 2010. Now the only option left for Maguwu is the review of the circumstances around bail as the magistrate had promised to do when he denied him his freedom on the initial day of remand,” said Bere.
Rejecting Maguwu’s bail application High Court Judge Chinembiri Bhunu said the CRD boss was facing a serious charge carrying possible long jail sentence and was a flight risk if released from jail.
Maguwu, whose CRD has investigated and exposed smuggling and other illegal activities at the controversial Marange diamond mines, was arrested two weeks ago and charged with communicating false statements prejudicial to the state after he allegedly wrote reports detailing alleged rights abuses by security forces at the notorious diamond field.
He faces up to 20 years in jail if found guilty.
Meanwhile Maguwu has since been removed from the Avenues Hospital where he was receiving treatment and taken back to remand prison hospital despite protests from his legal team.
“The authorities have insisted and prevailed upon the attending specialist surgeon to discharge Farai from Hospital and let the prisons doctor takeover the post-operative care. The hospital nursing staff explained that even though this was against their better judgment, the matter was beyond them,” said Bere.
A meeting of the Kimberley Process (KP), the world diamond industry regulator, which began in Israel Monday is expected to focus on the Marange diamonds issue.
Several international rights groups that are members of the KP have threatened to quit should the diamond watchdog vote to accept recommendations by its Zimbabwe monitor, Abbey Chikane, two weeks ago to lift the ban on diamonds from Marange.
Chikane, a South African diamond executive, said in his report that Zimbabwe has met standards set by the KP last November and should resume exports of diamonds from the Marange field also known as Chiadzwa.
But rights groups want the Marange gemstones banned, alleging serious rights abuses by the army, which was deployed by President Robert Mugabe’s then government ostensibly to stop illegal diamond digging after up to 30 000 panners descended on the poorly secured fields in 2006. -- ZimOnline
