Nkhata Bay State witness faints in court
A drug theft case involving medical assistant Tawona Mkandawire and business-person Noah Kaira was on Wednesday interrupted for 24 minutes following the collapse and fainting of a state witness while giving evidence in the jam-packed Nkhata Bay Magistrate’s Court.
Defence lawyers Dziko Malunda and Ashim Siadi were forced to reserve their questions for the witness, Phyoka Msuku, until September 18 2013 when the case returns in court.
Meanwhile, the State has paraded seven witnesses who have alleged that the drugs worth millions of kwacha were stolen from Ruarwe Dispensary in Nkhata Bay, but the suspects claim that they imported the drugs from Tanzania.
The State, which is being represented by police prosecutors Evans Kamtukule and Lloyd Banda, alleges that Mkandawire and Kaira stole the drugs.
Police seized the drugs two weeks ago at Nkhata Bay Jetty, just after the suspects had disembarked from the MV Ilala which was coming from Chilumba in Karonga.
