The Zomba Chief Resident Magistrate’s Court has acquitted former Malawi National Examinations Board (Maneb) executive director Gerald Chiunda and three others after finding them not guilty of mismanaging examinations.

Chiunda, who was subsequently fired by Maneb after a disciplinary hearing following his arrest, was charged alongside his subordinates Ishmael Ufman Jangiya Faki, Joseph Chilombe and Owen Bester Khuntho of mismanaging the 2020 Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examinations. The quartet denied the charges that followed leakage of examinations that year.

Cleared: Chiunda

In his ruling, chief resident magistrate Austin Banda agreed with the defence’s submission that the State failed to prove that the accused had a case to answer, as such, proceeded to acquit them.

In an interview following the judgement, lawyer representing Chiunda and Faki, Chancy Gondwe, yesterday said he was yet to get instructions from his clients on the way forward.

But the lawyer indicated that the former Maneb boss was unfairly treated because the board dismissed him when matters were still in court.

Chiunda, as first accused, was charged with the offence of failure to take reasonable steps for the security of national examinations materials contrary to Section 14 (3) (b) of the Maneb Act (Cap. 30:04) of the Laws of Malawi.

He was also charged with the offence of failure to exercise due care and attention in relation to the security of national examinations materials contrary to Section 14(3)(a) of the same Act.

In summing up the case prior to judgement, Gondwe had told the court that after analysing the evidence by the State through the police prosecutors during the trial, the State failed to prove that they have a prima facie case against both the first and the second accused persons.

He argued the evidence by the State witnesses and the investigator fell short of proving the essential elements of the offences, and he asked the court to acquit his clients.

“If any, the evidence adduced by the prosecution has been so discredited as a result of cross-examination and is so manifestly unreliable that no tribunal could safely convict on it,” Gondwe observed in court documents seen by The Nation.

Lawyer Ian Twea, who represented the third accused Chilombe and the fourth accused Khuntho, also submitted that the State failed to prove the case against his clients and prayed for acquittal.

The other three remained in Maneb employment and were getting their benefits, but were barred from reporting for work.

The 2020 MSCE examinations were retaken in January 2021.

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