Cashgate cases adjourned after objections
The High Court in Lilongwe today adjourned cases in which three people are charged with various counts of theft and money laundering in the ongoing cashgate trials after their defence lawyers raised various objections.
Wapona Kita who is representing Caroline Savala, Maxwell Namata and Luke Kasamba said in an interview after hearing that they raised objections which were pertinent to ensuring a fair trial for is clients.
On Namata and Kasamba, Kita argued before Justice Annabel Mtalimanja that the office of the Director of Public Prosecution had served the defence with a summary of the witness statements and not the actual statements as required.
On Savala, the defence raised objections pertaining to the duplicity of the charges against her which Kita argued involved the same amount of K49 million she is accused of pocketing from the Ministry of Tourism which her company had not rendered any services to government.
Kita said charges against Savala of theft and money laundering were arising from the same material facts.
The court is expected to deliver a ruling on the defence’s objections next week Thursday.
The court adjourned Namata and Kasamba’s cases to March 12 to allow for the State to furnish the defence with statements of the four witnesses to be paraded to strengthen their case.
Office of DPP is simply either incompetent or deliberately delaying the process to ensure cases are concluded after rather than elections so that chief thief JB’s election campaign is not affected negatively by the cases.