Court Correspondent
Harare property developer George Katsimberis has taken deputy prosecutor general Michael Reza to task for claiming that he doctored transcripts of his fraud trial to scandalise the court.
Kastimberis, who wants his case where he is accused of defrauding businessman Ken Sharpe’s Pokugara Properties in a housing project deal referred to the Constitutional Court (ConCourt), accuses Reza of trying to influence the outcome of the trial in favour of his erstwhile business partners.
During cross examination by his lawyer Tino Chinyoka before Harare magistrate Vongai Guriro on Wednesday, the property developer said the court record was doctored to prejudice his ConCourt bid.
Katsimberis said the transcript had missing pages, his responses during court hearings were doctored and some sections deemed to be helpful to his case were deliberately omitted.
Sections deemed unfavourable to Pokugara were also removed from the record, he said.
In response, Reza claimed the doctored transcript was created by Katsimberis to scandalise the court even though it bears the signatures of the magistrate and a transcriber.
The businessman insisted that he was given the document by the clerk of court after the intervention of the magistrate.
“This document is your creation, you created it and you can not purport that it came from this honourable court because there is nothing that shows that it came from the court,” Reza charged.
Mr Reza will not supply because he created the letter when investigating the case to try to make it balanced.“He is trying to do what he is paid for,” Katsimberis added, as he insisted that Reza was compromised and had an unprofessional relationship with Aleshina.
