South African witnesses, whose statements are included in the extradition request for self-proclaimed prophet Shepherd Bushiri and his wife Mary, must appear in the Malawi lower court, magistrate Patrick Chirwa ruled on Monday.
Chirwa ruled – among other things – that the State did not follow the law by relying on affidavits sent from South Africa and that it should have “interviewed witnesses themselves, and assessed the evidence as well”.In addition, the State had been effectively ordered to make sure it interviewed witnesses from South Africa and that those witnesses must appear in a Malawi court to sign under oath as well as to be questioned by the defence.
Chirwa subsequently gave the State two weeks to file its new application and further noted that “this should be the last application/preliminary objection on this matter unless something extremely compelling comes up”.The Bushiris were excused from Monday’s proceedings following the death of their eight-year-old daughter, Israella.
We are in the error of zoom, why not use zoom, if witnesses are to travel to Malawi who's paying for travel costs?