The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) says it is surprised with the Notice of Adjournment obtained by defence lawyers at the Magistrates\u2019 Court in the case involving former minister of Agriculture, George Chaponda, and one of the directors of Transglobe Produce Exports Rashid Tayub.
\nACB has expressed surprise that Chaponda\u2019s lawyers have obtained the Notice when there is a pending judicial review of the case to be tried at the High Court
\nThe anti-graft body had asked Senior Resident Magistrate Simeon Mdeza to leave the case in the hands of another magistrate after they suspected foul play. The ACB issued a certificate of committal to transfer the case to the High Court after Mdeza stood his ground.
\nACB lead prosecutor in the case, Macmillan Chakhala, said they are surprised that the court [Magistrate Court] which was barred from handling the case has issued the Notice of Adjournment.
\n\u201cFrom our interpretation, we are of the view that the matter is not supposed to continue until judicial review is over. But since they have obtained the notice, we will see what we can do. We are surprised and we will see whether we will go or not,\u201d Chakhala said.
\nThe Notice of Adjournment, which The Daily Times has seen, dated December 13 2017, was granted by Chief Resident Magistrate Mdeza.
\n\u201cTake notice that the matter herein has been adjourned to the 12th day of January 2018 at 10:00 in the for noon before His Worship Mdeza, in the Chief Resident Magistrates Court sitting at Blantyre,\u201d reads part of the notice
\nIn an earlier interview ACB acting Director, Reyneck Matemba, said the stay order means ACB cannot proceed with the case at the High Court.
\n\u201cWhat this means is that we can neither serve the High Court with disclosures nor file charges for the accused until the issue of the stay order is sorted out,\u201d he said.
\nMeanwhile, Chakhala has said the defence is yet to serve them the summons for judicial review.
\n\u201cThey [defence] were supposed to file the summons for judicial review after seven days so they filled the summons on December 6 at the court. However, the court has not given them a date,\u201d he said.
\nChaponda is charged with giving false information to the ACB, possession of foreign currency in Malawi and attempt to obtain an advantage.
\nTayub is facing a charge of persuading a public officer to perform his functions corruptly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) says it is surprised with the Notice of Adjournment obtained by defence lawyers at the Magistrates\u2019 Court in the case involving former minister of Agriculture, George Chaponda, and one of the directors of Transglobe Produce Exports Rashid Tayub. ACB has expressed surprise that Chaponda\u2019s lawyers have obtained the Notice when there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":56355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57903,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57897\/revisions\/57903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}