Free Mussa Parade is NOT anti-judiciary: organisers

Malawi: The organisers of the Free Mussa Parade have denied rumours that they are planning to attack the Malawi judiciary, stating that they have no intention of doing so and are only against selective justice.

One of the organisers, Penjani Kalua, also known in the music industry as Fredokiss, stated this on Tuesday at an emergency press briefing in Blantyre.

According to Kalua, the Free Mussa Parade has been moved from Thursday, September 15th, 2022 to Thursday, September 23rd, 2022.

During the press briefing, Fredokiss dismissed accusations that the parade is intended to attack the judiciary, claiming that the protesters are not directing their grievances to judiciary officials but rather to President Chakwera, whom he described as the nation's father and who has the authority to pardon Mussa.

He stated that the parade will not influence court rulings, as some have suggested, because Mussa's lawyers intend to appeal the conviction and sentence, citing what happened in 2019 when people demonstrated while the election case was in court.

Fredokiss also stated that the petition will no longer be delivered to Sanjika Palace, but rather to the District Commissioner’s office and that the petition will be received by the DC instead of the state president, Lazarus Chakwera.

He then asked people to come out in large numbers for the parade and show Mussa some love, and he assured the public that the parade will be free of violence because they are recruiting over 200 security marshals to tighten security during the parade.

He also accused politicians in the country of remaining silent on the issue, claiming that if it had been during the campaign season, they would have made a lot of noise about it in order to gain some votes.

Mussa John was sentenced to eight years in prison in June for being found in possession of 78 wrapped plastic bags of Indian hemp, but the Blantyre High Court reduced his sentence to three years on September 1st, 2022.