1200 denied justice
Nearly 1 200 murder suspects are languishing in some of the country’s prisons without prospects of trial, one year after the Legal Aid Bureau (LAB) suspended defending homicide suspects due to lack of funds.
In a written response to a questionnaire, LAB spokesperson Chikondi Lunduka said the bureau handled about 1 400 homicide cases in 2015 prior to the suspension. She said that after the suspension, the bureau has registered over 1 200 homicide cases nationwide.
She said: “The suspension has led to the delay of justice for both the victims’ families and the suspected murderers as the cases will take more time to be concluded. The bureau registers between 800 and 1 600 homicide cases in a year.”
In an apparent bid to clear the backlog, Lunduka said, LAB ventured into resource mobilisation.
On this drive, she said, LAB secured funding from First Merchant Bank (FMB) group vice-chairperson Hitesh Anadkat to help in reducing the prison population in the country through activities such as bail applications, lodging appeals against convictions and sentences.
She said the European Union (EU) also funded the bureau to undertake bail applications through the Governance Democratic Programme which phased out last year whereas Paralegal Advisory Service Institute (Pasi) supported with the handling of 20 homicide cases.
Said Lunduka: “However, the bail applications are temporary reliefs as the suspects will still have to face trial. Furthermore, the government has provided resources for recruitment of lawyers, but these lawyers still need logistical support to execute their functions.”
LAB is a taxpayer-funded governance institution that provides free legal services to the masses. It suspended offering the services in February last year due to funding constraints.
In the meantime, the bureau has indicated that the suspension of defending the homicide cases could be extended depending on availability of resources to support the matters.
The development means that murder suspects who cannot afford to hire private lawyers will have to spend more time in jail before facing trial, worsening overcrowding in the country’s already congested prisons.
Following LAB’s suspension of defending homicide cases last year, the bureau wrote the Registrar of the High Court of Malawi and Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal notifying him about the development.
The Judiciary responded by suspending hearing the cases, citing that there was no way it could carry on with the hearing without legal representation.
In an earlier interview with The Nation, Judiciary spokesperson Mlenga Mvula said that when a homicide case comes before court, it is a requirement that the accused should have a lawyer.
He said where such suspects cannot afford a private lawyer, the courts advise them to go to LAB to seek representation.
“In the absence of that representation, hearing cannot continue as the challenge that might rise is convicting people on cases they would have been easily set free,” said Mvula.
Commenting on the situation, Centre for Human Rights Education, Advice and Assistance (Chreaa) executive director Victor Mhango said access to justice for homicide suspects remains an elusive right which the inadequate funding at LAB has failed to meet.
He said: “This has made our courts to have a backlog of homicide cases which has led to suspects staying on remand for a long time without knowing their fate. Every suspect has a right to be tried within a reasonable time.
“The right is enshrined in Section 42 of our Republican Constitution. This right, however, remains one of the burden of the Malawi Justice system especially when it comes to homicide cases as some suspects spend more than 5 years on remand.”
Previously, the Malawi Law Society (MLS) asked Treasury to take immediate measures to provide LAB with adequate funding to provide justice to people who cannot afford legal representation. n
