The State has insisted on using affidavits and documents fraudulently filed at the High Court and Supreme Court in civil cases by Constantine Chaza, a legal clerk, as evidence in Chaza's trial on fraud and perjury charges.

Mrs Shambadzeni Fungura told the court that such documents should be admissible as evidence in the trial as they form part of the records of court proceedings.

The prosecutor said now that the trial has started the defence was disputing the documents thereby contradicting their applications and disowning the special power of attorney and the affidavits filed at the High Court and Supreme Court. Chaza, who was at the time a law clerk with CCC co-vice president Tendai Biti's law firm, stands accused of forging a signature on a power of attorney used in two civil cases and wants the documents he submitted in court cases disallowed in his criminal trial.

Harare magistrate Mrs Munashe Chibanda deferred the matter to October 11 for ruling. Chaza, through lawyer Admire Rubaya, last week objected to the production of the affidavits saying they were not admissible in court as they were not certified. Even the special power of attorney, with an allegedly forged signature used to release property was, he argued, a private document whose authenticity was now being challenged.

"This court is however, being asked to look through the document and ascertain if it was signed by Chaza, forging the signature of Elliot Rogers. This trial would be rendered unfair if these documents are accepted in court, said Mr Rubaya.

MrsFungura had told the court that since those documents were filed in the courts in a series of civil hearings, they had become official and public documents, and were already part of the record of those proceedings, and so can be used in the criminal trial of Chaza.

Chaza is charged with fraud and perjury.