Court rules in favour of Prophet Bushiri, ordering SA-base witnesses to testify in in Malawi, in person. Image via Facebook/ Prophet Shepherd Bushiri
Prophet Bushiri celebrates ‘milestone victory’ in extradition case
Court has ruled in favour of Prophet Bushiri, ordering SA-base witnesses to testify in the extradition case in Malawi, in person.
Court rules in favour of Prophet Bushiri, ordering SA-base witnesses to testify in in Malawi, in person. Image via Facebook/ Prophet Shepherd Bushiri
The High Court of Malawi has on Monday, 13 February ruled that South Africa-based witnesses on the extradition case against Shepherd Bushiri and his wife Mary have to travel to Malawi to give evidence.
According to The Citizen, the Bushiri’s are wanted in connection with a fraud and money laundering case to the alleged tune of R102 million.
They were arrested in 2020 but skipped the country to Malawi soon after being granted R200 000 bail each by the Pretoria Central Magistrate’s Court under strict conditions.
The South African government sent an extradition request to Malawi in terms of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) protocol on 5 December 2021.
SA WITNESSES NO LONGER ALLOWED TO TESTIFY VIRTUALLY, BUT PHYSICALLY
Lilongwe Magistrate’s Court ruled in favour of the prosecution, allowing witnesses to give evidence virtually, while in South Africa, before a South African court.
However, Bushri and his wife, argued that the witnesses had to be physically in court in Malawi to testify.
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The couple won. It was ruled that the witnesses from South Africa attend the extradition case in Malawi, in person.
BUSHIRI CELEBRATES THE RULING
Bushiri took to his Facebook page to announce the ruling.
“The High Court in Malawi has ruled that witnesses, to be specific, those that arrested us and recorded cases against us (investigators) be physically present in Malawi for cross-examination by our lawyers.
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“We welcome this fair ruling and we look forward to meeting them in court where we will exercise our right to cross examine them for a fair ruling. Thank you everyone for your continued support. We will continue to pray for you as you pray for us,” said Bushiri.
BUSHIRI SAYS THEY SURVIVED ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS IN SA
He further said that he and his wife were treated unfairly in South Africa and that they survived assassination attempts.
“When we came to Malawi, we spoke about how unfairly we were being treated in South Africa. We had opened cases of extortion against some of the investigators who arrested us a year before the same accused officers arrested us.
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“We also survived assassination attempts after we opened cases against some individuals in the Republic of South Africa and they have records of these cases in the Police and Judicial systems which we believe to be vital in our case,” he said.
