Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) National Director of Operations, Joe Nyirongo who is answering robbery charges has been granted bail by the Mzuzu Magistrate court.
Nyirongo popularly known as ‘Big Joe’ who is also a renowned businessman in Mzuzu was granted bail Tuesday after he appeared before Principal Resident Magistrate, Clemence Chamwenda at the Mzuzu court house.
Initially, the case was supposed to start being heard today but state prosecuting team which is being led by Daniel Kuyokwa told the court that they have amended the charge sheet by adding another charge after Police investigations.
Lawyer representing Nyirongo, Moses Nkhono objected to this saying the state should have alerted them of the changes to the charge sheet for them to ably argue the case in court.
He said that, “It seems the state is not ready to start this case so they are trying to ambush us by telling us in court that they have amended the charge sheet to include this new charge which we know nothing about.
“This puts in a position where we have insufficient information to argue on therefore we request state to furnish us with the disclosures and charge sheet for us to go through it and consult our client to ensure a fair trial.”
Nkhono then went on to request the court to grant his client bail saying he has spent a month in custody while waiting for the case to start.
“In the interest of justice and fair trial, our client needs to be released on bail and the court should grant us 7 days to go through the amended charge sheet and properly prepare our plea, “he added.
In his argument, State Lawyer Kuyokwa admitted that they had not served the defence with the amended charge sheet saying they had taken over the case from police prosecutors and they were not aware the papers had not been delivered.
“We admit that in the spirit of fair trial, the defence needs to be served with the amended charge sheet just like we shared them a medical report which we also received two days ago but the seven days they are asking for is too much,” he argued.
PRM Chamwenda agreed with the defence team and he ordered the state to present the defence with the amended charge sheet after which trial would commence.
“Since today we were supposed to start hearing the case but we have failed to due to an error by the state, in the interest of justice, the court has granted bail to the suspect who has been in custody since 8 June 2023,” he added.
Chamwenda ordered him to bereporting to Mzuzu police on Mondays after every two weeks, produce a non cash surety of K 200,000.
His relations, himself or other agents should not be in contact with witnesses and he should be available for trial at a date which will be announced later.
Reported By George Mponda
