Bushiris are ‘free’ as Malawi court reserves arrest ruling

The High Court in Malawi has reserved its ruling on a challenge which self-proclaimed prophet Shepherd Bushiri and his wife Mary have lodged against a second warrant of arrest issued against them.

“In short, the court has reserved its ruling on the application for the injunction, meaning that court is not ready with its decision. We will keep waiting until the court informs us that it is ready,” their lawyer, Wapona Kita, told the media on Tuesday.

When asked what it meant for the Bushiris, he responded: The status quo remains. They are free. They can go wherever they want to go, do what they want to do, attend court when the date is set as it has been.

This comes after the pair obtained an interdict on 21 February 2021, preventing Malawian police and the Director of Public Prosecutions from effecting their arrest.

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“I [obtained an interdict] because the police wanted to rearrest them, which would have been in contempt of an earlier court order,” Kita previously told News24.

This occurred just two weeks shy of the pair’s extradition hearing ,which was meant to be heard on 8 March, but was delayed.

The hearing was postponed to the following Monday after the couple’s legal team launched an application for the recusal of the magistrate in the case, citing “evident bias”.

News24 earlier reported that Kita was ready to proceed with the hearing last Monday but then learnt that the magistrate who signed the second warrant of arrest would preside over the case.

The application was dismissed. There were no sufficient grounds for a recusal.

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The pair are wanted in South Africa in connection with fraud and money laundering to the tune of R102 million.

They, however, fled the country to their homeland just a few days after they were granted bail of R200 000 each – under strict conditions – in the Pretoria Central Magistrate’s Court.

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