Judicial review for Chanthunya extradition decision

A High Court judge in South Africa is to rule on whether the Home Affairs Minister was wrong to allow the extradition of  Malawian Misozi Charles Chanthunya, accused of murdering a pregnant Zimbabwean girlfriend.

Chanthunya faces a murder charge which is punishable by death in Malawi.

He has been fighting against his repatriation from South Africa in courts following the killing of his 25-year-old Zimbabwean girlfriend Linda Gasa in September 2010.

Ministry of Justice spokesperson Apoche Itimu confirmed Chanhtuya has filed for judicial review against his extradition.

“He has commenced judicial review against extradition,” said Itimu.

Itimu said Chanthunya’s case is an ongoing process which would one day be completed.

Chanthunya made headlines in September 2010 when he skipped Malawi borders after Gasa went missing for almost a month – Nyasa Times were the first to report this story exclusively.

The second-year Malawi College of Accountancy student was later found entombed in the 34-year-old Blantyre businessman’s private cottage in the southern resort town of Mangochi.

The married Chanthunya reportedly went to the Lake Malawi resort district to discuss with Gasa, his secret lover, about her five-month-old pregnancy. He wanted her to abort but she refused.

That was the last the two were seen together before the Blantyre businessman eluded police to skip the borders and the accountancy student was found entombed in the bathroom, decomposing.

An international man-hunt was launched with false sightings in South Africa, the United States and Cuba.

Chanthunya was arrested in January 2O12 by the International Police (Interpol) in Rustenburg, South Africa where he had been hiding after being on the run for more than one year.

He was co-habiting with a Malawian girl.

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