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| Judge Chinembiri Bhunu |
Greed led to a man being arrested after being a fugitive for ten years.
Back in 2000, Cosmas Nyambara killed his brother and was convicted of the crime. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He fled before being jailed.
Nyambara of Rusape, Zimbabwe, was jailed for shooting his brother during a dispute over the inheritance of their father.
In 2000, Nyambara was sentenced to 15 years in prison, he immediately filed an appeal in the Supreme Court. He was unable to process his appeal within the allotted time which led the Secretary of the Supreme Court to declare the application abandoned and subsequently dismissed.
By law, Nyambara was supposed to be jailed after the dismissal of the appeal in 2003, but he could not be located. Detectives had been searching for him for many years and were unsuccessful in locating him, until now, when he filed a civil lawsuit against police.
Nyambara filed a civil lawsuit against the police department after officers had mistaken him for someone else in 2009 and shot him during that confrontation. "I was shot by a homicide detective who had me confused with the deceased armed robber, named Gift Tyres. Later, it was established that I was not Gift Tyres. I was freed but I was not compensated for the gunshot wounds I suffered,”
Nyambara said. Nyambara said he knew nothing about the arrest warrant and that if he had known he would have surrendered to the police. "The police had my address and never visited me to serve me with a warrant. Only after I decided to sue the police, detectives ambushed me. They wanted to make sure I do not continue the civil suit against them for damages of my injuries they caused," Nyambara said.
He also pleaded with the court for leniency, telling the judge that he was taking care of the wife and children of his deceased brother, but Judge Chinembiri Bhunu said he could not review the sentence which was upheld by the Supreme Court. Judge Bhunu ordered Nyambara to prison after hearing arguments from both the State and the convict. He will now serve the sentence of 15 years.
“Justice has been served. I cannot believe that he is complaining about not being compensated by police after they shot him. How about he first compensate his brother’s family for killing their husband and father?” Jasmine Ford, 26, of Harare, Zimbabwe, told YourJewishNews.com after Nyambara was captured.
Judge Bhunu also told Nyambara that he was free to pursue his civil lawsuit against the police while in prison.