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Principal Magistrate for Zomba Benedicto Chitsakamire will face a disciplinary committee hearing after it transpired, he flouted procedures in issuing of a vacation of arrest order for top banker Thom Mpinganjira.
Chitsakamire issued the vacation order on the night of January 22 allowing Mpinganjira to be released over night causing a public circus and suspicions of how the matter was handled.
In her directive, Judge Dorothy nyaKaunda Kamanga also took Ritz attorneys’ lawyer Lusungu Gondwe off representing Mpinganjira after he lied under oath at the High Court that he was the one who drafted and went to Zomba to meet the magistrate.
Kamanga asked Gondwe twice if he indeed was in Zomba and asked him what transpired in the chambers to which he affirmed.
The judge told him she has no record of any lawyer being in the chambers per the column sheet which was submitted to her from Chitsakamire.
Kamanga then asked Gondwe of what his response will be if she told him to stop representing Mpinganjira because he gave him bad legal advice to which he said he would abide by the courts order and was struck off the case.
The judge gave a directive to the registrar to have the Judicial Service Commission’s disciplinary committer look into the issue within seven days.
She said lawyers are not supposed to just calls magistrates or judges.
Kamanga explained there is a procedure which is used to select authority to handle a case.
“In this case how did Chitsakamire get his hands on the file.
“The selection of who will get a case is in the hands of the court and not the court users,” she said.
The judge has also ordered that Gondwe appear before a law society disciplinary hearing within seven days.
Source: Kulinji Online
