Misozi Court favours Chanthunya
By Jarson Malowa, Contributor
The High Court in Zomba has dismissed the State’s application for the discharge of a stay order in the murder case of Misozi Chanthuya.
The State wanted the court to continue prosecution of the case despite an appeal by the suspect’s lawyer, Fostino Maere, to continue representing Chanthunya in the case.
Earlier, High Court Judge Redson Kapindu ruled that Maere must stop being Chanthunya’s lawyer because the State insisted that there was conflict of interest in the matter.
The court learnt that Maere wrote the State’s first legal opinion in the case when he was working in the government.
However, trial in Chanthunya’s murder case has not yet started because Maere challenged Kapindu’s ruling at the Supreme Court of Appeal in Blantyre.
But, in his ruling on Tuesday, Kapindu dismissed the State’s application on the matter, arguing that trial must commence after the Supreme Court’s ruling.
State lawyer, Pirirani Masanjala, said trial would wait for the Supreme Court to rule on whether Maere continues to represent Chanthunya or not.
“This means that trial in the case will wait a little longer,” Masanjala said.
Maere declined to grant The Daily Times an interview, saying his client, who is accused of murdering his alleged girlfriend Linda Gasa, has advised him against doing so. Chanthunya is out on bail.
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