A doctor at Sally Mugabe Hospital in Harare is in trouble for falsifying a medical certificate claiming that a Chinese suspect arrested for illegal possession of rhino horn is ill.
The doctor, Simbarashe Michael Mundawaro did this to help the suspect Yang Wang to skip bail.
Mundavaro appeared before Harare Judge Evelyn Masawakure on Friday who released him on ZW$20,000 bail.
According to the State, on January 16 this year, Wang was arrested for possession of four full Rhino horns, three cut pieces of Rhino horns and 4 x 2kg packs of small cut slices of rhino horns which were in a basket inside his bedroom.
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He was taken to court and later released on bail.
The next remand date was March 23.
Prosecutors allege that on 18 March, Yang then approached Mundawaro for assistance so that he skips bail conditions and routine remands.
“Mundawaro allegedly connived with Yang and contrary to or inconsistent with his duties as a public officer, authored a fake letter portraying that Wang Yang aged 59 years with passport number EE9589816 was a patient under his care and management.
“The letter stated that the patient was alleged to have been diagnosed with a bone marrow malignancy (Chronic Myeloid Leukemia) and is under medical follow up at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals.
“Accused person also indicated that Wang Yang wanted to have bone marrow transplant surgery to be performed on him urgently in Zambia, which was false,” reads court papers.
He then used a fake stamp with the date of the Parirenyatwa Hospital Group on the letter inscribed the name DR T Moyo with medical qualifications MBChB (UZ) ACLS (AHA) who is non-existent.
The defendant wrote a forged letter and gave it to Mr. Yang, who gave the forged letter to Gift Chihuta, a legal representative of the law firm Gumbo & Associates.
Chihuta applied to the Harare Magistrates Court to release Yang’s passport number EE9589816 and attached a fake letter as proof of Yang’s illness.
The application was lodged to the District Public Prosecutor Tendai Shonhiwa who later sought confirmation from the Investigating Officer namely Dai Maenzanise.
Investigations followed and Mundawaro was arrested.
The recovered authored document is being held as an exhibit.
Zebediah Bofu appeared for the State.
Mundawaro will be back in court on April 25.
