A Harare magistrate has issued a warrant of arrest for Francesco Marconati and his son for failing to perform community service.

Father and son were found guilty of threatening to kill Ms Li Song, one of the directors in the same company.

The pair was, in April, sentenced to perform 105 hours of community service at Inyati Police Station as an alternative to a jail term.

Ms Li was one of the two directors and shareholders of Eagle Italian Shoes and Eagle Italian Leather.

During the trial, Ms Li told the court that Francesco (65) illegally removed her from her position in the company and replaced her with his son, Alessandro Marconati.

He also removed Agrilink as the company secretariat without conducting a shareholders' or directors' meeting and used fraudulent CR6 forms to Ecobank and First Capital Bank to remove Ms Li's signature on all accounts and replaced it with his son's.

It was proven that on September 28, 2022, Ms Li was standing outside the Harare Magistrates Court after attending a criminal court where Francesco and Alessandro were facing fraud and forgery allegations in which she was the complainant.

While she was by her vehicle, she was approached by the pair and Francesco threatened her by pointing his finger at her saying: "Be careful that you want to send me to prison. I will kill you if you do not withdraw the case."

The court heard that Alessandro dragged Francesco backwards and kept shouting insults.

The court heard that Ms Li then told Alessandro that she had been looking after him better than her own son and he said to her: "Yes, you send your own son to prison." He then insulted her.

The State proved that Alessandro then dragged Francesco from where Ms Li was standing and they went to their car leaving her in the car park.

All the events were witnessed by Bernadette Mukuku who was in the company of Ms Li.