By Bright Sonani
The question that is being asked now is whether the Malawi Government has true evidence against the nine who were arrested on allegations that they wanted to stage a coup.
Many theories have been stated about the evidence with some suggesting that the documents were cooked up by some people.
However going through the Lilongwe High Court ruling one can have a picture of what is happening.
Tuesday May 20, 2008 at the Lilongwe High Court:
In a moment the High Court ground was turned into a UDF rally venue as hundreds of the party’s supporters danced and chanted Ancheya! Ancheya! Ancheya! and Boma! Boma! in praise of the party’s chairman Bakili Muluzi.
As soon as Lilongwe High Court Judge Elton Singini delivered his ruling UDF Organising Secretary and Parliamentarian Clement Stambuli stepped out of the court with his arms in the air and outside he was welcomed by a singing crowd gathered outside the court which jumped into jubilation and singing as he explained the outcome of the case from on top of a car roof.
The eight suspects arrived at the court at around 9.10 in the morning escorted by heavily-armed gun totting riot police riding a police armoured vehicle while the alleged coup master minders arrived in two Toyota Prado vehicles with private registration numbers.
The suspects in the case include Makwangwala, former Blantyre City Mayor and UDF regional governor for the South John Chikakwiya, Brigadiers Marcel Chirwa and Jack Mtende, Cosgrove Mituka, former commissioner of police Matthews Masoapyola, former Army General Joseph Chimbayo and former police Inspector General Joseph Aironi.
Also among the suspects is the former intelligence chief Chitsulo Gama who was not present in the court yesterday as he was arrested separately on Friday after the others were already brought into court.
Government is accusing the nine of conspiring to plot a coup to overthrow the Mutharika administration and have since been charged with treason and conspiracy to commit murder.
Scores of police officers were deployed at the court premises as early as 8.00 in the morning and were all over the High Court premises throughout the hearing and up until the eight left the premises at around 2.00 pm after the court had assessed their sixteen sureties after the bail was granted.
After the assessment of the sureties the eight came out of the court one by one to another loud applause from the gathering crowd as each one of them went straight to join their spouses and families.
The jubiliation and singing continued through out and although the hapiness was directed at the eight the centre piece was Muluzi through and through.
One of the defense lawyers Fahad Assani representing the UDF officials, in an interview outside the court said the ruling was a vindication that the state has weak evidence in the case.
“It is so weak that any reasonable government would not move in to arrest people on the basis of two anonymous and unauthenticated documents that are circulated,” he said.
Assani said Gama would be appearing in court on Friday for his bail application also.
Director of Public Prosecution Wezi Kayira in an interview said he was satisfied with the ruling but said as the prosecuting team they would have to sit down to see the way forward.
The High Court threw out the initial evidence submitted by the State against the eight suspects in the treason case describing the two documents presented as exhibts as conjecture and failed to meet the requirements of the rule of law.
Singini therefore released all the eight suspects on bail with an order that the bail conditions set by the court would expire after nine months to avoid “unjustly limiting the personal freedoms of the suspects.”
The State earlier had applied to the court for an extension of the detention of the eight for 14 days for it to conclude its investigations while the defense also applied to have the eight released on bail.
In his five page ruling Singini observed that the two documents which were said to be containing part of the information for the coup plot were not signed by the said authors of the documents and were also not properly certified as true copy of the original copy as the certifying stamp from the commissioner of oaths was not signed also.
He also said according to the rules of Criminal Procedure and Evidence contents of documents may be proved either by primary or secondary evidence and the said two documents, being photocopies, could not be regarded as primary evidence as they are each not the ‘document itself’.
“In this regard I reject the submission by the DPP. I hold that the certification as true copy of the original should have been separately signed for. In my judgement, in the condition they have been presented, the two documents also fail to meet the other requirement of rule as secondary evidence,” said Singini.
The Judge said the court will not act on conjecture but only upon properly admissible evidence laid before it.
Singini said the first document which was handwritten and presented as mail written by a person serving in the military and captioned ‘Forces Mail’ did not have the name of the author while much of the left hand margin is not legible.
On the second document the Judge said although it was type written and clearly legible and has the name of one of the suspects UDF Secretary General Kennedy Makwangwala it was not signed by the author.
“I am not satisfied that even on a balance of probability (that) the state has shown that the interest of justice would require that the suspects be remanded in custody for the State to be able to continue unhindered with its investigations nor that the interests of justice may not be properly served,” he said.
The Judge ordered that the eight would be released on bail and that the bail conditions shall lapse on the expiry of nine months from yesterday.
“In the event that the suspects are by then not charged with any of the offences to which these proceedings relate, and in such event the suspects shall continue to be remanded on bail but without conditions unless a court orders otherwise,” said Singini.
The bail conditions for the eight includes two sureties each with a bond of K100,000 not cash each; the suspects to report to police once every week in the first three months and thereafter once every fortnight for the ensuing four months and thereafter once every month.
The Judge also ordered the eight to surrender their travel documents to police and not to travel outside the country without the permission of the Inspector General of Police.
Among those present in the packed court room included UDF Director of Women Lilian Patel, the party’s deputy Secretary General Kennedy Makwangwala and its Organising Secretary Clement Stambuli, who immediately after the ruling was delivered rushed to the waiting crowd to explain the ruling.
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