High Court Judge Ruth Chinangwa has discharged a 17-year old treason case involving Former vice-president Cassim Chilumpha and businessperson Yusuf Matumula.
The two were arrested in May 2006 on allegations that they plotted to assassinate the President Bingu wa Mutharika using hired assassins from South Africa.
Chilumpha, through his lawyers Hawkins Attorneys applied for the discharge arguing that the matter had taken more than a decade with prosecution taking no steps, which was an infringement upon his rights as an accused.
He made his application under Section 42(2)(f) of the Constitution which, he argued guarantees an accused the right to fair trial.
However, though Dzikondianthu Malunda from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the State asked for 90 days to respond to the application.
he further argued that the accused wrongly referred to provisions such as Section 247 of Criminal Procedure and Evidence Code (CPEC), Section 42 of the country’s constitution and Universal Declaration of Human Rights
In a ruling dated October 18 2023, Justice Chinangwa dismissed the case noting that the State has shown no willingness to prosecute the matter because the matter has remained dormant for 15 years.
“Apart from that the State is also asking the court for a further 90 days to if at all they were to continue prosecuting the matter. It seems that this matter was a forgotten cause for the State.
“If anything, it speaks volumes on how the prosecution manages the prosecution of its cases. To say the least this matter has been poorly managed. It is only lawful to have the matter discharged in the circumstances,” reads part of the ruling.
Chilumpha and the late Mutharika fell out in 2005 after the former president left United Democratic Front (UDF), a party that sponsored him into power in 2004, to form his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
He is the president of the Assembly for Democracy and Development (ADD) party.
