Court dismisses case against fired Macra employee

The Blantyre Magistrate’s Court has discharged a case in which former Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) procurement manager Aitone Chandiyang’ana was answering charges of leaking privileged information.

Quoting Section 247 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Code, Blantyre senior resident magistrate Viva Nyimba cited lack of seriousness on the part of State and Macra.

For the fourth time yesterday, the prosecution team and State witnesses failed to show up at the court.

Chandiyang’ana, who was arrested on October 30 last year by Fiscal Police, has not taken plea due to prosecution’s failure to show up at the court.

Lawyer representing the accused, Chancy Gondwe, said in an interview yesterday the discharge followed an application he made on March 19 when the matter came before the court but could not proceed because the prosecution and witnesses did not show up.

But in an interview yesterday, Macra director of legal services Dan Chiwoni said he was not aware of the development and said he would only comment upon hearing from the State who prosecuted the matter.

In his reaction, Chandiyang’ana said the dismissal of the case confirms that Macra did not have a case against him.

He said he would liaise with his lawyer on the way forward on the matter.