The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa Court Correspondent
A PRISONER who escaped from Mutare Farm Prison last November was re-arrested and sentenced to 12 months imprisonment.
At the time of his escape, Forgive Zimunya (31) only had two days left on his eight months jail term.
He had been convicted of theft charges.
Zimunya pleaded guilty to escaping from lawful custody as defined in Section 185 (1) (b) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Chapter 9:23, when he appeared before a Mutare magistrate last week on Friday.
In passing the sentence, the magistrate, Ms Notebulgar Muchineripi said Zimunya committed a serious offence.
She said she couldn’t understand why Zimunya decided to flee from prison when he was almost done serving his sentence.
“The court will pass a harsh sentence on the convicted person to deter would-be offenders. Prisoners should not even think about escaping from prison,” she said.
Mr Chris Munyuki prosecuted.
He told the court that on November 5, 2019, Thomas Gwiza was the prison office on duty. He supervised Zimunya and five other prisoners as they cleared bushes outside the prison. Zimunya took this opportunity to escape.
“Zimunya was tasked with making a fire to prepare breakfast while the rest of the prisoners continued with their work. When they went back to where they had left Zimunya preparing breakfast, they discovered that he had escaped.
“A search was made, all to no avail,” said Mr Munyuki.
Officer Gwiza and other prison personnel went to Zimunya’s home in search of him. They informed his mother about his escape from prison and advised her to call them upon his arrival.
When Zimunya finally got home, his mother alerted the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services.
Zimunya was subsequently re-arrested.
