Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act Zimbabwe court or other proper person for such period and subject to such conditions as to the court, judge or person admitting the instrument seems fit. 312. Cutting counterfeit coin If any false or counterfeit coin is produced on any trial for an offence against currency or coin, the court shall order the same to be cut in pieces in open court or in the presence of a magistrate, and then delivered to or for the lawful owner thereof if such owner claims the same. 313. Unstamped instruments admissible in criminal cases Any instrument liable to stamp duty shall be admitted in evidence in any criminal proceedings, although it may not be stamped as required by law. 314. Admissions of fact (1) In any criminal proceedings the accused or his legal representative or the prosecutor may admit any fact relevant to the issue and any such admission shall be sufficient evidence of that fact. (2) If he considers it desirable for the purpose of clarifying the facts in issue or for obviating the adduction of evidence on facts which do not appear to be in dispute, the judge or magistrate may, during the course of a trial and on application by the prosecutor, the accused or his legal representative ask the accused or his legal representative or the prosecutor, as the case may be, whether any fact relevant to the issue is admitted in terms of this section. [subsection amended by section 28 of Act 9 of 2006] (3) Subject to this Act, an accused who is not represented by a legal practitioner shall be warned that he is not obliged to make any admission. 315. Presumption that accused possessed particular qualification or acted in particular capacity If an act or omission constitutes an offence only when committed by a person possessing a particular qualification or vested with a particular authority or acting in a particular capacity, a person charged with such offence upon an indictment, summons or charge alleging that he possessed such qualification or was vested with such authority or was acting in such capacity shall, at his trial, be deemed to have possessed such qualification or to have been vested with such authority or to have been acting in such capacity at the time of the commission of the alleged offence, unless he has denied that allegation within three days of notice being served upon him calling upon him to admit it: Provided that if after the prosecutor has closed his case the allegation is denied or evidence is led to disprove it, the prosecutor may adduce any evidence and submit any argument in support of the allegation as if he had not closed his case. 316. Impeachment and support of witness credibility It shall be competent for any party in criminal proceedings to impeach or support the credibility of any witness called against or on behalf of that party in any manner and by any evidence in and by which, if the proceedings were before the Supreme Court of Judicature in England, the credibility of such witness might be impeached or supported by such party, and in no other manner and by no other evidence whatever: Provided that any such party who has called a witness who has given evidence in any such proceedings, whether that witness is or is not, in the opinion of the judge or judicial officer presiding at such proceedings, adverse to the party calling him, may, after the said party or the said judge or judicial officer has asked the witness whether he has or has not previously made a statement with which his testimony in the said proceedings is inconsistent and after sufficient particulars of the alleged previous statement to designate the occasion when it was made have been mentioned to the witness, prove that he previously made a statement with which his said testimony is inconsistent. By Laws.Africa and contributors. Licensed under CC-BY. Share widely and freely. 123