Court rejects Norman Chisale’s yet another application on JCE certificate case

The Chief Resident Magistrate Court in Lilongwe has rejected an application by former Malawi Defence Force (MDF) soldier Norman Chisale who asked the court to restart his certificate case.

Former President Arthur Peter Mutharika’s bodyguard face charges over his alleged use of another person’s Junior Certificate of Education (JCE) to join MDF.

Chisale had earlier applied for a stay order to stop the case at the Senior Residents Magistrate pending a determination on his application for a leave to appeal.

He appealed against the changes at the High Court, saying the proceedings should be reviewed. But but his appeal was dismissed in August 2921 before he sought a stay of the High Court order pending determination of an application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

But the High Court Judge Annabel Mtalimanja dismissed the application for stay, observing that the application was incompetent and he had no grounds for the application.

This paved the way for the case to proceed at the Lilongwe Senior Resident Magistrate’s Court.

Chisale made yet another application, asking the court to restart the case in which the State already paraded the alleged owner of the JCE certificate, which the accused used to get a job.

The court also heard the testimony of Major General Alick Bentry Mhone of the Malawi Defence Force (MDF).

Chisale further asked for the re-summoning of all the witnesses in the case. On Monday, the accused took a fresh plea of not guilty in all the three counts relating to the case.

However, Chief Resident Magistrate Patrick Chirwa rejected his application to have his case started all over again.

Apart from the amendment of the charge sheet, the certificate case was transferred from Senior Resident Magistrate Shyreen Chirwa, who was moved to Industrial Relations Court.