The Lilongwe Chief Resident Magistrate Court is on Tuesday next week expected to deliver a ruling on whether Prime State witness Hellen Buluma should tender her call recording evidence or not.
This is in a case where Newton Kambala former energy minister together with president of Aford Enoch Chihana, and former presidential adviser Chris Chaima Banda are being accused of trying to force Buluma to award contracts to some companies.
Buluma who told the court that she has some call recordings where the accused persons were trying to influence her to award fuel contracts to some companies, wants to tender that as evidence in the court.
But the defense is objecting to this describing the evidence as not admissible as it was recorded without the consent of the accused persons.
According to one of the defense lawyers Khumbo Soko, tendering the recording evidence will be a violation of the accused persons’ constitutional right to privacy and the defense has applied to stop the tendering of such evidence.
The State through Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director General Martha Chizuma has however described the recording evidence as admissible saying the recordings are very important to the case.
High Court Judge Patrick Chirwa who is sitting as Chief Resident Magistrate in the case, has set Tuesday next week for his determination on the matter.
Source:MIJ
