Chanthunya appeals against extradition

Fugitive businessperson Misozi Chanthunya has filed an appeal against his extradition to Malawi at Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa.

Chanthunya lost his appeal against his extradition to Malawi in the South African High Court last month and was extraditable, but has now made his last attempt to stop the extradition by filing the appeal in the Supreme Court of South Africa.

Attorney General (AG) Anthony Kamanga confirmed on Monday that the Malawi Government received communication from Ministry of Justice in South Africa about Chanthunya’s appeal.

Kamanga said: “I am yet to see the grounds of appeal when I get into the office; I am just arriving into the country. But I got the information that he has appealed.”

Chanthunya is suspected of having murdered his Zimbabwean girlfriend Linda Gasa in September 2010. The late Gasa was found entombed under concrete at the Chanthunya private cottage in Monkey Bay, Mangochi.

Last year, a South African magistrate’s court in Rustenburg quashed his grounds against extradition and Chanthunya appealed against the ruling in the High Court.

Chanthunya was arrested in January last year by the International Police (Interpol) in Rustenburg, South Africa where he had been hiding after being on the run for more than one year.

After the arrest, the Malawi Government asked South African authorities to have the suspect repatriated to Malawi, but the issue ended up in court, especially considering that Malawi still maintains the death penalty in its laws.

He faces a murder charge which is punishable by death.