High Court Judge Justice Redson Kapindu has ruled in favour of the defence in the Vice President Saulos Chilima case that all disclosures must be given to them under oath.
The ruling was a victory for the defence team which has been demanding the disclosures but Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) was reluctant to share the same.
ACB earlier denied that some of the issues that the defence sought went through the PPDA only to change after citing some documents from the defence.
“Can we have the prosecution declare all the disclosures under oath to avoid shifting and hiding. They keep on changing. Let’s have the truth and not hide and seek,” said Bright Theu, one of the defence lawyers.
ACB lawyers mounted a fight to the request, saying doing so was dangerous because investigations would keep changing therefore providing disclosures under oath was not necessary.
Justice Kapindu said it is a constitutional right that the accused should be subjected to a fair trial hence the defence team is right to demand all disclosures before their client takes plea.
The Judge further said the ACB had failed to explain what danger would arise if the disclosures were made under oath.
Both parties have agreed that all disclosures of the case will be furnished within two weeks.
At the last hearing ACB promised that it would share disclosures save for few that were sensitive but interestingly, today, they did not seem willing to share these documents until the judge pushed them to do so.
Meanwhile, the two parties are tussling on why the ACB is objecting to release some disclosures that include Malawi Defence Council minutes and a report that cleared the Inspector General of Police (IG) before her appointment by Public Appointment Committee of Parliament (PAC).
