Court denies bail 20 North’s HRDC protesters

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Court denies bail 20 North’s HRDC protesters

MZUZU-(MaraviPost)-About 20 people who were arrested in Karonga during what would be three day demonstrations have been denied a bail by the Court in Mzuzu.

Following the demonstrations organised by Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) on Wednesday last week; to force MEC Chairperson, Dr Jane Ansah, to resign, police in the North arrested about 20 people from Karonga, two from Rumphi and three from Mzuzu City.

However, on Monday, the Court in Mzuzu denied about 21 of them a bail on the basis that the police had not yet completed its investigation on the gravity of their offence.

On Friday night last week, the 20 people who were arrested in Karonga were taken to Mzuzu Police under a heavy police escort, after it was rumoured that angry people  in the district were planning to force the police to release those who were arrested.

Since June, many people have been arrested during demos organised by HRDC and it has taken lawyers of the organisation to apply for the release of the arrested on bail.

It is now three months since Human Rights Defenders Coalition started to hold nationwide demonstrations to force Jane Ansah to resign from her position on the basis that she chairs Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) which allegedly mismanaged  the May 21 tripartite elections.

Ansah has since said she cannot resign for she performed her job professionally; else, she will resign only if  the court finds her on the wrong side of the law.

Richard Kayenda

I hold a bachelor’s degree in languages obtained from Mzuzu University. Since 2016, I have been working for Maravi Post as a reporter of local news; particularly from the Northern Region of Malawi. My main news areas are politics, business, sports and many more. Besides reporting, I also write news analyses on current affairs just to share informed opinions on news that matter in Malawi. By now I have a five year practical experience in online news reporting and I look forward to growing more professionally while raising the bar of Maravi Post; in order to make it a household name, as we keep our readership informed, edutained and updated on a daily basis.