A lawyer representing a Chinese national accused of fraud has told the Mbabane Magistrate’s Court that the defence was not aware that their client had been taken to the Manzini Magistrate’s Court for extradition proceedings.
The submissions were made during the appearance of Jin Houyun before the Mbabane Magistrate’s Court where his trial on seven counts of fraud was expected to commence.
Principal Magistrate Fikile Nhlabatsi indicated that the Mbabane court was not seized with the extradition matter involving the accused, adding that whatever was happening in Manzini did not involve the Mbabane Magistrate’s Court.
The development came after the Crown indicated that it would not proceed with the trial as scheduled because it intended to amend the charge sheet.
The accused had previously been represented by Advocate Mduduzi ‘Tsotsi’ Mabila but during yesterday’s court appearance he was represented by attorney Linda Dlamini.
The Crown informed the court that it was still preparing a statement of agreed facts and there were further developments in the matter which required amendments to the charge sheet.
“The reason the Crown intends to add a further charge in relation to money laundering is that when the accused first appeared in court, we were still not aware of issues under this offence which we now intend to add,” the prosecutor submitted.
The prosecutor sought a postponement to allow the process to be completed.
Meanwhile, Dlamini told the court that the defence was surprised to learn that their client had been taken to the Manzini Magistrate’s Court where extradition proceedings had allegedly commenced.
“Not even the courtesy of a phone call from the Crown was made despite knowing that we are on record appearing on behalf of the accused,” alleged Dlamini.
RELATED | DPP seeks extradition of wanted man to China
He further told the court that when he attempted to engage the prosecutor regarding the matter, the latter appeared not to be involved in the extradition proceedings.
Dlamini said the defence still needed to obtain full instructions from their client in light of the developments.
“We still need to engage the Crown regarding the extradition proceedings and obtain full instructions from our client,” he said. He added that the defence would also need to obtain the application that was reportedly pending before the Manzini Magistrate’s Court.
“We have also learnt that there has been legal representation arranged for our client, of which we were not notified,” he said, adding that he had taken instructions from Houyun earlier in the morning and that the accused maintained that the defence team remained his legal representatives.
“I took instructions from my client this morning and he maintains that we are still on record as his legal representatives, which the court also confirms,” he said, adding that in light of the latest developments, the trial would likely not proceed as scheduled.
Following the submissions, the Crown applied for a postponement of the trial date by two weeks and also sought leave to amend the charge sheet.
The court granted the application and remanded Houyun into custody until March 19.
