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Court frees Mafunde chair
By
Peter Makossah - 22-11-2002 |
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Mzuzu Magistrate’s Court on Thursday threw out a case in which Mafunde Party Northern Region chair Dangalira Mughogho was accused of using a motor vehicle horn to demonstrate against the third term bill on September 17 this year.
Chief Resident Magistrate Dingiswayo Madise said the state had no justification dragging Mughogho to court when it only fined Leonard Njikho, another Mafunde regional committee member who was arrested the same day and for the same offence.
Madise told a packed courthouse that there is evidence that Njikho was ordered to pay K1000 and that the question the court needed to decide was why Mughogho was not given the same penalty. He said the police did not act professionally.
Said Madise: “For reasons best known to Mr. Chirambo (station officer for Mzuzu Police Station) the accused [Mughogho] was detained at the prison and brought before court. Why were the two treated differently?”
“In the opinion of this court, Mr. Chirambo, a very senior police officer, did not act professionally in this matter. It should always be borne in mind that power must be exercised only to the extent as allowed by law for better enjoyment of the people’s rights.”
Madise wondered whether the penal law on which Mughogho was charged could stand the constitutional test of consistency as provided for by section 5 of the Malawi Constitution.
But Madise also observed that the mode of Mughogho’s demonstration in his quest to express his political views on the third term was strange.
He said the court would agree that traffic police did not know that the accused was demonstrating and it was reasonable that he was stopped and arrested, given the prevailing circumstances at that time.
“Traditionally the people of the world demonstrate by walking in a group, marching in the streets and displaying placards and singing songs which reflect political feelings, can it therefore be said that the accused was demonstrating by blowing his horn? Did the accused give notice to police that he was going to demonstrate?” asked Madise.
In defence, Mughogho told the court that he saw nothing wrong in demonstrating against the third term bill because it is his constitutional right to hold peaceful demonstration as it is provided for in the supreme law of the land.
Said Mughogho: “I felt duty-bound to do something for the people of Malawi. I cannot stand to see people suffering. I cannot stand and look at my relations starving to death with hunger and I cannot watch the people of Malawi being victimised by a government that spends money on anything but fails to protect the rights of its people.”
But Madise told Mughogho that the court was not interested in what he was saying as it was not relevant to the case and that the court could not be turned into a political arena.
“Stop that, talk of the issue at hand. I don’t want this court to turn into a political arena. I cannot allow the court to divert from its judicial service and start to discuss political activities,” warned Madise.
Madise then cautioned Mughogho that next time he wants to demonstrate on the third term issue or any other issues, he must inform the police in advance about the mode and style of his demonstration. Alternatively, he must refrain from taking the police by surprise.
Mughogho, 31, who hails from Kawaza in chief Chikulamayembe in Rumphi was arrested by Northern Region police along Orton Chirwa Avenue while honking as he was driving a Nissan Blue Bird registration number NA1460.
At that time, President Muluzi banned demonstrations for or against the third term bill. Judge Edward Twea, however, last month quashed the presidential order at the High Court in Blantyre.
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