{"id":41198,"date":"2023-02-20T22:37:57","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T22:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ex-mbc-boss-wants-jury-trial"},"modified":"2023-02-20T23:17:13","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T23:17:13","slug":"ex-mbc-boss-wants-jury-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ex-mbc-boss-wants-jury-trial","title":{"rendered":"Ex-MBC boss wants jury trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. <\/strong><\/span>The High Court sitting in Blantyre has set March 2 2023, to hear submissions from the State and the defence on the next course of action in a case where Malawi Broadcasting Corporation former director general Aubrey Sumbuleta is being accused of sexually assaulting female employees.<\/p>\n

Sumbuleta raised a preliminary objection during the proceedings and sought that his trial should be done with a jury in place. A jury is a sworn body of people convened to hear evidence and render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgement.<\/p>\n

In Malawi, most cases are heard without a jury, but those on constitutional matters must be heard by three judges. Wednesday, High Court Judge Ruth Chinangwa asked the State and the defence to serve each other with submissions on the jury application and whether the case should continue at the High Court or go to a magistrate court.<\/p>\n

Sumbuleta\u2019s lawyer David Kanyenda said the two sides will exchange submissions before appearing again in court on March 2. \u201cThe matter was supposed to come for trial. However, the accused raised a preliminary objection, stating that this trial is supposed to be by jury and not by a judge sitting alone, in terms of Section 294, subsection 1 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Code.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judge has directed that we file further submissions on that issue and on the question of whether this trial should be undertaken in the High Court and not in subordinate courts,\u201d Kanyenda said.<\/p>\n

Senior State Advocate Mathews Chione said the State was ready for commencement of the trial and that they had brought four witnesses to the court. \u201cWe thought trial was commencing today because we thought all preliminary objections that the court had asked to be done were done.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not think there would be any preliminary objection, but the defence has brought a preliminary objection that they want the case to be tried by a jury,\u201d Chione said.<\/p>\n

He added that the judge had asked why the case was being handled by the High Court and not a magistrate court. \u201cThat is another issue, where the judge has asked us to go back and file arguments on why we want the case to be in the High Court,\u201d Chione said.<\/p>\n

Sumbuleta was arrested in April 2021 after the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) carried out investigations into alleged reports of sexual harassment of female employees at the State-controlled broadcaster.<\/p>\n

The women who were allegedly sexually abused were already paid a total of K49 million by MBC as compensation, based on findings in the MHRC report. Sumbuleta denies the charges.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Malawi<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. The High Court sitting in Blantyre has set March 2 2023, to hear submissions from the State and the defence on the next course of action in a case where Malawi Broadcasting Corporation former director general Aubrey Sumbuleta is being accused of sexually assaulting female employees. Sumbuleta raised a preliminary objection during […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":41197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[233,371,2930,234,4725,3491],"class_list":["post-41198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-malawi","tag-aubrey-sumbuleta","tag-malawi","tag-mbc","tag-mhrc"],"yoast_head":"\nEx-MBC boss wants jury trial - Malawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The High Court sitting in Blantyre has set March 2 2023, to hear submissions from the State and the defence on the next ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ex-mbc-boss-wants-jury-trial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ex-MBC boss wants jury trial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The High Court sitting in Blantyre has set March 2 2023, to hear submissions from the State and the defence on the next ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ex-mbc-boss-wants-jury-trial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Malawi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-20T22:37:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-20T23:17:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2023\/02\/postQueueImg_1676920102.74.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"582\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ex-mbc-boss-wants-jury-trial#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ex-mbc-boss-wants-jury-trial\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Ex-MBC boss wants jury trial\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-20T22:37:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-20T23:17:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ex-mbc-boss-wants-jury-trial\"},\"wordCount\":456,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ex-mbc-boss-wants-jury-trial#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2023\/02\/postQueueImg_1676920102.74.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Malawi\",\"Aubrey Sumbuleta\",\"Malawi\",\"MBC\",\"MHRC\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ex-mbc-boss-wants-jury-trial#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ex-mbc-boss-wants-jury-trial\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ex-mbc-boss-wants-jury-trial\",\"name\":\"Ex-MBC boss wants jury trial - 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