Fighting extradition: The Bushiris

The Lilongwe Chief Resident Magistrate Court has ordered the South African government to pay K560,000 as costs of proceedings for delaying the extradition case involving preacher Shepherd Bushiri and his wife Mary.

The court arrived at the fine after lawyers representing the Bushiris objected to the State’s application to adjourn the matter for 21 days.

Defence lawyer Wapona Kita told the court that the State did not give reasons to adjourn the matter to a later date.

However, in her ruling, Chief Resident Magistrate Madalitso Chimwaza said while she agreed with the arguments by the defence, she had used her discretion to arrive at the decision.

 “There is no prejudice suffered by the defendants apart from the time wasted, and the defence will be compensated with costs of K560,000 to be paid before the next date of hearing, and it is the first time for the State to ask for an adjournment,” Chimwaza said in her ruling.

She also pointed out that the State has not been vigilant, and that it was unfortunate and disrespect for court orders.

Earlier on, State lawyer Dzikondianthu Malunda had told the court that their witness was not ready to testify due to logistical challenges.

But lawyers for the Bushiris asked the court to dismiss the case if the witness, South Africa’s Director of Public Prosecutions, was unable to testify despite being present in the courtroom.

Chimwaza has since given the State 60 days to file all necessary documents and serve them on the defence before December 11 2023, when hearing in the case will resume.

Yesterday, the court was expected to receive evidence from South Africa’s witnesses detailing why they needed Bushiri’s extradition.

The proceedings followed a previous application by the Bushiris, who want the entire extradition process dismissed because South Africa brought “unauthenticated evidence, which is against the law”.

Chimwaza agreed with the Bushiris, but guided that South Africa must present the evidence first before court and that matters would proceed from there.

The Bushiris are wanted by the South African government to appear before court there on allegations of fraud and money laundering while they were in the Rainbow Nation before fleeing to Malawi in 2020 while on bail.