Judge Kenyetta rules Chasowa case should proceed

Justice Kenyatta Nyirenda of the High Court has ruled that  the murder case of Polytechnic student Robert Chasowa a former fourth-year engineering student at the Polytechnic, can be certified by Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal  before it goes for a judicial review.

This follows  an application by two suspects in the criminal proceedings—first defendant Petros Tembo and second defendant Geoffrey Doff Botoman—to have their case discharged.

Private practice lawyer Ambokire Salimu, representing the applicants for discharge, wants the wheels of justice to roll as he said the suspects’ right to a fair trial was being violated because Section 42 [2] [F] [1] provides for a fair trial which includes a speedy trial .

Salimu said Tembo and Bottoman, who were the first to be arrested, applied for their case to be discharged after they stayed for over a year without being taken to court for trial.

“I want my clients to be discharged because the state is failing to prosecute them since their arrest in 2012,”said Salimu.

The chief justice is the only one allowed by law to give such certification but the current chief justice Andrew Nyirenda chaired the Robert Chasowa Commission of Inquiry when he was judge.

However, in his ruling Judge Kenyatta Nyirenda said Supreme Court of Appeal with a panel of three judges will give “guidance” on how certification rules can be applied.

Chasowa was killed by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)  and state operatives for being critical of late president Bingu wa Mutharika on September 24 2011.

He was found dead near the dispensary and finance blocks office at the Polytechnic campus under questionable circumstances.

The inquiry into the student’s death named 15 suspects, including Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) MP, Noel Masangwi, boxing promoter Mike Chitenje and former and current Big Bullets Football Club supporters’ chairpersons Isaac Osman and Stone Mwamadi respectively.

The then police spokesman Willie Mwaluka repeatedly told people that Chasowa killed himself and produced a hand written suicide letter from the student but the inquiry established it was the work of handwriting expert at the police.