INTERNATIONAL film and video editing specialist Olaf Koschke yesterday told Harare magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa that the video evidence being used by the State in Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) legislator Job Sikhala’s trial was tampered with.
Leading evidence in Sikhala’s defence, Koschke said the video showed that it had a watermark which is difficult to tell if it is an original video footage.
The video specialist started editing in the 1980s and was a television editor and lecturer at EBTV, and at Feedback Films in Berlin, Germany.
“You spoke about making a video with footage that you would have gotten from the filming crew. Can you say this is the original video?” Sikhala’s lawyer, Harrison Nkomo asked.
Koschke responded: “This video has a watermark, so that means it went through a computer before it was played.”
“So a watermark amounts to editing?” Nkomo further asked.
“Yes,” Koschke replied.
“So you insist that it is not the original?” Nkomo asked again.
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“It can’t be the original video because it has a watermark,” Koschke responded.
Kosche said he had prepared another video from the same clip being used against Sikhala. He said he changed the wording on the speech in the video and replaced it.
Nkomo then asked the court recorder to play the video.
The video was played and some of the words that were uttered in the first video were different from the one Koschke prepared for the court to view. He said editing of a video can be done by any professional.
Koschke downloaded some of the videos on YouTube with a person being shown in the video speaking a different language.
He said every video that is uploaded on different platforms is editable.
“This video is edited, it’s a combination of pictures and sound and watermarks, and we don’t know if there were there when it was filmed. You cannot rely on a video that you download on YouTube. You need to rely on witnesses who were there at the time that it was filmed,” Koschke said.
A fake video of President Emmerson Mnangagwa purportedly endorsing CCC president Nelson Chamisa was also played in court, and Koschke said these were the kind of fake videos that are downloaded from the internet.
The State, through Oscar Madhume also cross-examined the witness asking him if he was 100% sure that the video was edited, to which Koschke insisted that the video was edited. Nkomo then closed his submissions.
Gofa remanded the matter to April 28 for ruling.
