Lilongwe – Prophet Shepherd Bushiri and his wife, Mary Bushiri, on Friday, appeared before the Lilongwe Magistrate Court, in Malawi, to fight off attempts by South African authorities to extradite the wealthy couple to face allegations of multimillion-rand fraud in SA.
Senior Resident Magistrate Matlida Chimwaza heard an application by Prophet Bushiri’s lawyer asking the court to entirely dismiss South Africa’s extradition request.
Self-proclaimed Prophet Bushiri and his wife fled South Africa in 2020 after being released on bail.
Bushiri and his wife are accused of fraud, theft, and money laundering involving about R102 million, which they allegedly siphoned from their dodgy investment scheme.
Since the Bushiris skipped bail, South African authorities have been trying to extradite them to face justice.
The Bushiris are arguing that South African authorities consistently flouted laid-out legal procedures in filing their extradition case.
As expected, the State opposed the application.
Lawyer for the Bushiris, Wapona Kita told the Court that in terms of the Extradition Act specifically Section 13, it is mandatory that an affidavit leading to extraditing a person must be authenticated.
Authentication, he said, is defined by the same act to require that judge must be satisfied with the document or affidavit that it purports to be what it seeks to achieve.
Alternatively, he added, a magistrate must have been satisfied as to the authenticity of the document or affidavit or an officer of the court.
Further, Section 13 also requires the Minster of the concerned country to place a seal on the document to further authenticate the document, and in the absence thereof, such documentation and whatever contain in it as evidence becomes inadmissible in the courts of Malawi.
Kita, therefore, argued that the extradition request tendered by South Africa cannot be admissible in the Court because it has not passed the test of presenting evidence as required in terms of Section 9(4) to bring or to extradite a person of interest.
He, then, said the Magistrate Court cannot deviate from statutory provisions, especially of presenting evidence to cause a person to be extradited.
He underlined that a creature of the statute, the Magistrate Court must comply and respect the higher court of the land and must on that basis dismiss the entire extradition request permanently.
In his submission, Prophet Bushiri’s lawyer Wapona Kita asked the Court to permanently dismiss the extradition request by SA authorities because the evidence they used in their request cannot be admissible in Malawi courts as it has not been duly authenticated as required by the law.
Kita has also prayed before the Court not to allow the State to amend the substantial flaws in their request because extradition proceedings are special, they come to court after an order from the Minister of Homeland Security.
The State, however, has argued that though it agrees with Kita’s arguments, it does not agree with the application of dismissal but has asked the court to provide fresh directions.
Magistrate Chimwaza adjourned the matter for her ruling next month on 27 September.
