Africa-Press – Malawi. The Supreme Court of Appeal in Lilongwe is today expected to hear an appeal by the State following an earlier ruling by the High Court, regarding a case in which four suspects were on trial for being suspected of murdering Kottana Chidyaonga.
The matter involves four acquitted suspects; namely Timothy Mtilosanje, Gilbert Kamaliza, Ekaree Chaweza and Diana Bhagwanji – who were all found with no case to answer by High Court Judge Thomson Ligowe on August 19 2020.
Chidyaonga died on January 3 that year. Initial reports of her death suggested that she had died of a snake bite before suspicions that she had been murdered started circulating after pathologist Charles Dzamalala declared that her death was a result of termik.
The appeal by the State comes at a time when Dzamalala, who gave his testimony as a State witness in court during the trial of the four, is under investigations by the Medical Council of Malawi (MCM), The Daily Times has learned.
Registrar of the Council, Richard Ndovi, confirmed the investigation in an interview, saying the body has been looking into Dzamalala’s conduct in regards to the autopsy report he produced after Chidyaonga’s death.
“We cannot publicise our findings at the moment, but we have indeed investigated Dzamalala’s conduct in the late Chidyaonga’s post-mortem, as well as his conduct in other cases – including his alleged involvement of the preferential vaccination of Indians that was rumoured to have been attempted earlier [this year],” Ndovi said.
However, Director of Public Prosecutions, Steven Kayuni, said the Medical Council of Malawi’s issues are not within the purview of the appeal before the Supreme Court.
According to documents that The Daily Times has seen, Khwima Chiza, a lawyer to Mtilosanje – the late Chidyaonga’s boyfriend—argues that the Supreme Court should dismiss the state’s appeal and uphold the court’s finding that his client and the other three have no case to answer.
