HARARE - Lawyers representing 29 Glen View  residents accused of killing a policeman in May 2011 are to apply for their clients’ acquittal after prosecutor Edmore Nyazamba closed the State case.

Nyazamba wound the State case yesterday after hearing evidence from Gabriel Aguero Gonzalez, a Cuban pathologist who examined the policeman’s body.

The pathologist’s absence had stalled the lengthy trial, as he waited to get authority to testify from his government six months after being subpoenaed to court.

Gonzalez, Zimbabwe’s only forensic pathologist told the court Petros Mutedza died from assault injuries.

“According to our observation, we determined that the now deceased suffered head injuries, a depressed skull fracture and damaged brain as a result of assault,” said Gonzalez, speaking through a Spanish interpreter.

However, the activists’ lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa trashed Gonzalez’s evidence.

“Your conclusions are not only unsatisfactory, they are worthless. You did not conduct a proper independent post mortem,” said Mtetwa, who said defence lawyers are launching a freedom bid for the activists.

Mtetwa questioned how Gonzalez had managed to compile a post-mortem report in English, yet he was not conversant with the language.

Gonzalez told the court he had only arrived in the country a month before he carried the post mortem and was not a fluent English speaker but leant the language through watching television and reading on internet.

Out of the 29 suspects, only five remain in custody after trial judge Chinembiri Bhunu who ruled they were a flight risk and that the State had a strong case against them turned down their freedom bid. - Tendai kamhungira