HARARE – A Zimbabwean court on Monday postponed to next week the trial of homosexual worker Ellen Chademana after a police investigator failed to pitch up at court.

This is the sixth time that the case, in which Chademana and a co-worker are accused of possessing pornographic material in breach of Zimbabwe’s censorship laws, has been postponed.

Chademana’s lawyer told the court that he would apply for his client to be removed from remand should the state fail to proceed with the case on July 26, the new trial date.

 “We ask to place this on record that this is the sixth time that the state has postponed this case. We shall challenge the further postponement on remand of my client if the state fails to resume trial,” the lawyer said.

Chademana works for the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ), the only representative body for homosexual people in the mainly conservative southern African country.

She was arrested together with Ignatius Muhambi, an administrative assistant at GALZ, last month at their Milton Park offices in Harare and charged with possessing obscene, indecent or prohibited articles in contravention of Section 26 (1) (b) of the Censorship and Entertainment Control Act chapter 10:04.

Muhambi, whose trial has already begun at the magistrate’s court, has pleaded not guilty. Chademana is yet to plead. – ZimOnline.