Bushiris argue Malawian magistrate committed legal errors when ordering their extradition to SA
The fugitive pair launched a review application before the High Court in Lilongwe to review a judgment ordering that they face the music in South Africa.
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
JOHANNESBURG - Wanted fugitives, Shepherd and Mary Bushiri, have argued that the chief resident magistrate in Malawi committed legal errors when she ordered their extradition.
The pair launched a review application before the High Court in Lilongwe to review the judgment of the court, which ordered that they face the music in South Africa.
This was after the South African government applied for their extradition to answer to a string of charges after they fled the country in 2020, contravening their bail conditions.
But the couple is challenging that judgment on 15 grounds.
Section 140 subsection 1 of Malawi’s Criminal Procedure and Evidence Code provides that every judgment must have the points that must be determined, the decision of the court and the reasons for it.
The Bushiris argue that the magistrate's court had no jurisdiction to hear the matter as their arrest was not in compliance with the Extradition Act.
They submit that this was not just a mere technicality but constitutes non-compliance with the law, which effectively barred their arrest and the proceedings that continued before the court were a miscarriage of justice.
The fugitives want the judgment of the magistrate's court reviewed and set aside.