State parades 4 against Norman Chisale

The State paraded four witnesses in former president Peter Mutharika’s security aide Norman Chisale’s attempted murder case, which came for hearing yesterday at the High Court sitting in Blantyre.

Chisale is being accused of attempting to kill Blantyre-based woman Sigere Amani in Chimwankhunda Township.

However, the case seems to be heading for a nosedive as all the four witnesses that were paraded Monday seemed either not to have a recollection of the event or not interested in continuing with the case.

Amani, who was one of the witnesses, told High Court Judge Sylvester Kalembera that she withdrew the case and did not want to be part of the trial.

“I withdrew the charges. It is not true that Mr Chisale planned to kill me. It was purely an accident, where the bullet was discharged as he was struggling with some men. In fact, I did not know that the case was continuing,” she said.

The State then asked for a recess to have a chat with its key witness but she maintained her position when proceedings resumed.

Again, two of the three men who were allegedly struggling with Chisale when the firearm allegedly discharged a bullet told the court that they did not have a full recollection of what happened on the material day, saying they were drunk.

Senior State Advocate Pilirani Masanjala said it was the responsibility of the court to determine the believability of the witnesses.

“We cannot comment on whether our witnesses were satisfactory or not. The court assesses the demeanour of the witnesses and how they are relating to issues. That is the responsibility of the court,” he said.

Defence lawyer Chancy Gondwe said he was happy with proceedings on the first day of the trial.

“Well, the person who allegedly lodged a complaint denounced the charges. The other witnesses said they were drunk on the material day but we will leave it to the court to decide at the end of everything,” he said.