Malawi’s justice ministry files papers opposing Bushiri couple’s bid to review application against their extradition to SA
Malawian preacher Shepherd Bushiri waves at sympathisers as he leaves the Lilongwe Magistrate court on 19 November 2020, after skipping bail in South Africa, and was arrested in Malawi. Picture: AFP
The controversial couple is challenging a ruling by the chief resident magistrate in Lilongwe in March this year that ordered that they be surrendered to South Africa.
The partners fled to their home country in 2020, violating their bail conditions.
They face a string of charges in South Africa, including fraud, money laundering and rape.
A legal showdown looms as fugitive couple Shepherd and Mary Bushiri take their fight to stay in Malawi to the high court.
In papers, the Bushiris argued that the chief magistrate erred in law by breaching the fundamental principles of natural justice.
They allege that she delivered her final ruling on South Africa’s extradition request without affording them an opportunity to defend themselves.
But the respondents argued the contrary, submitting in papers that the proceedings before the lower court were not a trial to which they would have been asked to plead to the charges against them, but that the applicants were being assessed to establish if they should go and stand trial in the neighbouring republic.
The purpose of the inquiry proceedings, the respondents posit, was to establish whether there was a prima facie case that the available evidence warranted the extradition of the two fugitives.
They accuse the Bushiris of attempting to turn the inquiry into a trial, applying criminal trial procedures to extradition inquiries, which found no place in the proceedings before the lower court.
