High Court in Lilongwe ordered that South African witnesses in the extradition case involving Prophet Shepherd Bushiri come to Malawi and physically testify before the magistrate court.
The ruling follows the appeal Bushiris had applied before High Court against an earlier ruling by the magistrate court that witnesses should testify in South Africa.
In his ruling, judge Bruno Kalemba began by specifying saying witnesses to the extradition hearing are reprensantatives of the requesting state.
“These reprensantatives will be able to satisfy the court that their request meets all the requirements under Section 6 of the Extradition Act and answer questions and be cross-examined by the fugitive offenders,” he ordered.
In an interview, Bushiri said he welcomes the ruling as a milestone victory for us in our case
“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 prosecutors who arrested us a year before the same accused officers arrested us.
“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.
“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 trial. Thank you everyone for your continued support. We will continue to pray for you as you pray for us,” he said.
With the ruling it means, the case goes back to the Chief Resident Magistrate Court in Lilongwe for proceedings on a date and time to be announced.
