Stuart Kalungama, a man who is alleged to have defiled his 9-year-old stepdaughter in Lilongwe, wants Chief Resident Magistrate Patrick Chirwa to recuse himself from his trial.

According to lawyer representing the accused person Edward Chagalamuka, the defence has noted a number of anomalies that need to be looked into based on the partiality of the presiding Magistrate.

In an interview, Chagalamuka said his client wants a fair trial hence proceeding with an application to have the Magistrate to recuse himself.

“The accused person feels that there are a number of issues that we have raised that are very pertinent and we feel that there is an appearance of likelihood of bias that the Magistrate will not be impartial, so according to law we want him to recuse himself.

“I was attending to another matter, and then I had called the State advised them that I will be slightly late, when I was arriving here I heard that the matter has been dismissed however we proceeded and met the Magistrate in the chamber where we have agreed that will make an application to have the matter restored,” said Chagalamuka.

However, Chief Resident Magistrate Chirwa dismissed the application on the basis that lawyer representing the accused was not present in the Court when the application was being pronounced.

“Today we were supposed to hear the application from the defense on whether the presiding magistrate should recuse himself from the case and we were going to respond as a prosecution in this matter.

“But they (defense) didn’t show up so that application did not take place, therefore it was dismissed for no-attendance of the counsel,” said one the state lawyers Immaculate Maluza who is from Women Lawyers Association.

Hearing of the matter has been adjourned to May 17, 2021 for the court to determine whether the accused has a case to answer or not.