Sunday Mail editor Edmund Kudzayi and his brother Philip, who were accused of being behind the faceless Facebook character Baba Jukwa, were freed today after the State withdrew charges against them before plea.
When charges are withdrawn before plea, the State can call back the person by way of summons should they get new evidence. But judghing by the way the case dragged on without any progress, the Kudzayi brothers might not be summoned back.
The Kudzayi brothers were arrested in June last year after initial reports had identified Baba Jukwa as two South African-based journalists- Mxolisi Ncube and Mkhululi Chimoio- who both wrote for the London-based Zimbabwean.
Edmund, however, dismissed the arrest and the charges saying they were laughable and an abuse of the justice system because he had been working with the state to resolve the Baba Jukwa mystery.
“These allegations are not only laughable, but a clear abuse of the criminal justice system by those in the corridors of power who are afraid that I can use my technological expertise to expose those who actually supplied the real Baba Jukwa with blow-by-blow details of sensitive meetings within ZANU-PF and the Zimbabwean government and also the people behind it,” he said.
“This is clearly a trial and error by the State in seeking to resolve the Baba Jukwa mystery. The State is just stabbing in the dark hoping along the way as they arrest innocent people like me and victimising the same, they would get the real Baba Jukwa. This is a clear lie.
“I am not Baba Jukwa at all….. I was really assisting the Ministry of Defence and I have been taken back by this backstabbing by the State, yet I was trying to resolve the mystery with them through the ministry of defence and police, law and order section….
“Further, what the police are claiming to have investigated they actually got it from myself as I supplied them with the relevant information through Assistant Commissioner Makedenge.
“I am perplexed that I am being falsely incriminated, yet the investigating officer knows very well that my involvement in the matter related only to hacking Baba Jukwa account and the Ministry of Defence officials were also in the picture of my involvement in hacking of Baba Jukwa Gmail account…
“The State has missed the ball and is now majoring in minor and trivial things, yet the real Baba Jukwa is laughing off after the State has arrested an innocent man who has no connection to Baba Jukwa page.”
The Baba Jukwa page was launched on 22 March 2013, four months before the elections which the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front swept by more than two-thirds majority.
The page was so popular that it had amassed more than 400 000 likes before most of the posts were removed after the arrest of the Kudzayi brothers and the so-called exposure of The Zimbabwean journalists.
It is still online but has only 9 666 likes with the last post in July 2013.
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