Malawi court postpones Bushiri extradition hearing
The extradition hearing for self-proclaimed prophet Shepard Bushiri and his wife Mary has been postponed to March 15.
A warrant of arrest was filed against the pair after they violated bail conditions and fled South Africa for Malawi in November 2020.
They were arrested in South Africa in October on charges of fraud and money laundering after allegedly scamming congregants of Bushiri's Enlightened Christian Gathering church into investing between R100 000 and R1 million in a scheme.
They appeared in a magistrate court in Lilongwe on Monday.
Their couple, through their lawyer Wapona Kita, launched in application for the magistrate’s recusal.
"We were ready to proceed with the extradition request but when we went to court, we realised that the matter has changed, the magistrate, which took us by surprise," said Kita.
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"Under the same time, we have information that this is the same magistrate who issued a warrant of arrest against our clients.
“That warrant of arrest is currently being challenged in the high court and we believe there will be bias on the part of the magistrate whose warrant of arrest we are challenging.”
Kita said they will be presenting their formal recusal application on Monday.
