By Lucy Ng’andu
Enlightened Christian Gathering (ECG) Leader Prophet Shepherd Bushiri and his wife Mary have appealed to High Court, a ruling by the Chief Resident Magistrate’s court that South Africa-based witnesses should testify right in the rainbow nation on their extradition case.
According to one of the lawyers representing the fugitive offenders Wapona Kita, the appellant is challenging the directive that the witnesses should render their evidence whilst in South Africa.
He said: “Under our law the court has got powers on how sexual witnesses should testify and having them to testify in south Africa is not one of the options since the law has already put in place mechanisms.
“In terms of how they can either put a glass screen if they don’t want to look at the alleged or they can testify from another room or if it is about trauma, they can bring a family member to make sure that they get the support that they need.”
Kita also argues that research has shown that Malawian lawyers cannot be admitted in South Africa courts therefore the lawyers of the appellants cannot stand a chance to appear before the court of South Africa.
“This may compromise Bushiri and his Wife Mary’s right to legal representation as the South African lawyers are not aware of the laws on Extradition here in Malawi.
“The evidence which is required in this stage it’s not about whether there are guilty or not it’s about whether they should be extradited,” he argued.
Kita added that the earlier High Court directive was clear on the matter on how the witnesses should testify contrary to respondent’s understanding that the witnesses should testify in the foreign land.
On his part, the respondent through Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Steven Kayuni said as a state we have put before court that the application should be dismissed.
“But it is up to the court to decide on how the processes should move, we have sided a number of cases and one of them is the decision that was decided in July this year in South Africa that the two offenders continuously instructed for the lawyers in South Africa to represent them.
“However, the State will wait for the court’s determination on the matter,” stressed Kayuni.
High Court Judge Bruno Kalemba has since reserved his ruling to a later date.
