Court orders fresh submissions in Bushiri extradition case

The Chief Resident Magistrate’s Court in Lilongwe yesterday ordered prosecution and defence in the ongoing extradition case involving Prophet Shepherd Bushiri to file fresh submissions within 14 days.

Presiding chief resident magistrate Madalitso Chimwaza, who was set to decide on whether South Africa-based witnesses should make their testimonies virtually or be physically present in Malawi, dismissed preliminary objections by both the State and the defence teams.

On its part, the defence submitted that the court lacked powers to revisit its own decision, but the chief resident magistrate said based on an earlier decision of the High Court of Malawi, magistrate’s courts have powers to rehear the matter because the issue at hand was not covered.

Chimwaza also dismissed the application by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Steven Kayuni to have the matter referred to the High Court.

She instead ruled that the court will set its own directions and indicated that judgement will be delivered on August 5 2022.

In an interview after the ruling, senior State advocate from DPP chambers, Mathews Chione, welcomed the court’s verdict, but decried the slow pace at which the case is moving.

He said: “What the court has said today is that both parties should make fresh submissions on whether witnesses should give disposition in South Africa. We are not happy with the pace. It’s a slow process and even the court was concerned.”

On his part, Bushiri’s lawyer Wapona Kita described the determinations as fair, observing that the court had accorded both parties an opportunity to make their presentations.

“It is as if we are starting the case all over again and we may find ourselves in a situation where we had started in December 2020,” he said.

Earlier, the State also argued that some of the witnesses are rape and assault victims who will require psychological counselling and to be accompanied by close relatives throughout the preliminary inquiry for moral support. The State said this arrangement would be costly and that it was impractical to hire psychologists in Malawi as they are few.

But Kita challenged the application on the basis that the issue was already dealt with by the same court in its ruling on June 8 2021 in which it ruled that the reasons were not convincing enough.

Oh his part, Kayuni said rape and assault victim witnesses are delicate people and there is a special way of handling such cases.

Bushiri, founder of the Enlightened Christian Gathering, and his wife Mary fled from South Africa in November 2020 against a background of multiple separate charges of fraud.