ConCourt Judges speak out on threats
Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal Judge Healey Potani yesterday revealed that unknown people tried to implicate High Court judges hearing the 2019 presidential election case by depositing money in their personal accounts.
This, he said, was after the five-judge panel of Justice Ivy Kamanga, Justice Dingiswayo Madise, Justice Michael Tembo, Justice Professor Redson Kapindu and himself had made a ruling in February 2020 that annulled the May 21 2019 presidential election results.
Potani was speaking at a ceremony in Lilongwe where the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) judges received the United Kingdom’s Chatham House award in recognition of the “courage and independence in the defence of democracy” by the Malawian judges.
He said: “We were still not free people. Even after we had delivered the ruling, there were attempts to implicate us, and some people wanted to put money into our accounts; but we realised this earlier and we had to block our accounts.”
Potani also narrated some worrisome incidences during the trial period, where at one point their vehicles were stoned on their way from court and security had to be beefed up.
He described the Chatham House award as a win for Malawians and not only the five judges.
In his remarks, Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda also touched on the security of the ConCourt judges during the trial, saying he felt hopeless and suffered in silence as there wasn’t much he could do apart from letting the security agencies provide the much- needed protection.
Said Nyirenda: “ It’s not like the judges didn’t have any fear, but they had to postpone their fear till they got to the finishing line. Some of the judges personally called me and passed the messages they were receiving.
On his part, Chatham House managing director Alex Vines observed that at a time when standards of democratic governance are under threat not only in Africa but in many democracies, the country’s Concourt judges set an example for their peers across the world by upholding the centrality of the rule of law and separation of powers.
Commenting on the awards, he said: “Competition is always fierce. In addition to the nomination of the judges of Malawi’s Constitutional Court, there was the Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the Jacinda Ardfern, the prime minister and the people of New Zealand.”
The Chatham House prize is an annual honour awarded to the person, persons or organisation deemed by the institute’s members to have made the most significant contribution to the improvement of international relations in the previous year.
