Judge rebuffs Kasambara
Mzuzu-based High Court Judge Dingiswayo Madise yesterday refused to hear a bail application for former minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Ralph Kasambara, ordering Kasambara’s lawyers to take it back to the High Court’s Lilongwe registry.
Madise said hearing the bail application in Mzuzu would send wrong signals and create confusion as Judge Esmie Chombo of the High Court in Lilongwe was ready to hear the same application.
Said Madise: “This court wouldn’t want to be seen as if it is clinging to the case. There are a lot of cases that have to be handled.”
The judge said it was unfortunate that the applicant expected the application to be heard in Mzuzu on Tuesday and it was not done. He said hearing the matter would give an impression that the applicant was engaging in judge shopping.
When the court sat at around 2pm yesterday, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Bruno Kalemba questioned why the application was being made in Mzuzu when it had not been withdrawn in Lilongwe, an observation Madise agreed with.
Victor Gondwe, lawyer representing Kasambara, told the court the application had been withdrawn in Lilongwe.
He also said the application was supposed to be ex-parte and wondered why the State was present.
But Kalemba said the transfer of the case was putting the two courts in an awkward position.
Said Kalemba: “It is incumbent upon the bar that it conducts itself in a way that doesn’t put the courts in an awkward situation. The bar is putting the courts in an awkward situation.”
In an interview after the court, Kalemba said Kasambara’s lawyers did not follow procedures in transferring the case, arguing they simply wrote the court to notify the matter was being withdrawn. He said they needed to apply for withdrawal.
Gondwe said the application was withdrawn on Monday after the court failed to hear the application and did not set a date for hearing. He said considering the issue at hand, an application had to be made in the High Court in Mzuzu.
“The issue of bail is an urgent matter. To keep someone in custody even for an hour is such a long time,” he said.
Kasambara was arrested on Friday in Lilongwe in connection with the shooting of Ministry of Finance budget director Paul Mphwiyo on September 13 2013.
