Chief Resident Magistrate Patrick Chirwa of the Lilongwe registry has rejected an application by former president Peter Mutharika’s bodyguard, Norman Chisale, who wanted the court to restart the certificate case in which the former Malawi Defence Force (MDF) soldier is accused of using another person’s Junior Certificate of Education to get recruited into the force.

The defence had further asked for the resummoning of all the witnesses in the case.

Chisale appeared before the Chief Resident Magistrate today, where he took a fresh plea of not guilty in all the three counts relating to the case.

Apart from the amendment of the charge sheet, the certificate case was transferred from Senior Resident Magistrate Shyreen Chirwa who was moved to Industrial Relations Court.