Activist Bon Kalindo will now spend one week at Mangochi Prison, where he has been remanded pending the ruling on his bail application. Kalindo applied for bail at the Mangochi Senior Resident Magistrate Court yesterday.
After being arrested on Friday, he appeared in court yesterday, when he was formally charged— the charge being that he proposed violence during demonstrations that took place in the lakeshore district on November 30. Kalindo denied the charge during plea-taking time.
Thereafter, Eastern Region State prosecutor Josephine Chigawa told Senior Resident Magistrate Muhammad Maxwell Chande that the State was not ready with witnesses because investigations are underway.
“We would like to move the court to adjourn the case to a later day to allow us to finish investigations into the matter,” Chigawa said.
Kalindo’s lawyer Smart Khalifa agreed with the State’s proposition to adjourn the case, adding that the State had not furnished the defence with any document relating to the matter.
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He, however, asked the court to release Kalindo on bail while the State continues with investigations. Khalifa said Kalindo is answering similar cases elsewhere and that he was granted bail there.
“He also does not have any travel document because all his documents were handed over to the courts. He has also demonstrated that he cannot jump bail because he is appearing in court for other cases he is answering,” he said.
But the State objected to the bail application on the basis that Kalindo can interfere with witnesses.
“We are at a very crucial stage of the investigations such that releasing him on bail can jeopardise investigations,” he said.
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In his ruling, Chande ordered that Kalindo be remanded and that hearing of the case begin on Friday, December 15, with the State parading witnesses.
