A Harare magistrate, Collet Ncube, has finally granted an Ordinary Level student, Nicole Chabata, US$50 bail following intense lobbying for her release by several civic society groups.
Chabata, 18, had been languishing in jail following her arrest alongside Citizens Coalition for Change interim leader Jameson Timba and other party activists.
She endured three months behind bars after being denied bail twice earlier.
Ncube released her following consent from the prosecution.
She had applied for bail for the third time through Lawyers for Human Rights, citing changed circumstances.
“Upon considering that there was no opposition to accused number 17 (Chabata)’s application, it is the court’s ruling that she deposits US$50 bail with the clerk of court, continues to reside at her given address, and reports once every last Friday of the month at Epworth Police Station,” said the magistrate while handing down his ruling.
Chabata is due to sit for her Ordinary Level final examinations soon.
Timba and 64 others remain in jail awaiting a ruling on their similar applications, also filed on the grounds of changed circumstances.
They will be back in court this Tuesday with their lawyers filing further applications.
The group is facing defense hearings after their application for discharge at the close of the State’s case, on the charge of participating in an unlawful gathering, was dismissed by the court last week.
Twelve individuals were freed last week after the court established that they were caught in a dragnet arrest.
Timba and others were all acquitted on the charge of disorderly conduct.
Prosecutors allege that the group unlawfully gathered at Timba’s residence on June 16.
They allegedly later stoned officers who had rounded them up over the meeting.
Sheila Mupindu and Lancelot Mutsokoti are prosecuting.
