Former magistrate among pardoned prisoners

Former Blantyre chief resident magistrate David Kadwa is one of the 230 prisoners who have been pardoned by President Peter Mutharika recently, prison officials have confirmed.

Kadwa was serving a two-year term following his arrest in March 2006 on allegations of bribery, extortion and abuse of office.

According to a prison record Weekend Nation has seen, Kadwa’s committal date was October 9 2014 and he was due for release on February 8 2016.

Malawi Prisons Service acting Chief Commissioner Litto Mtengano confirmed in a telephone interview on Thursday that Kadwa is among the pardoned prisoners.

“Kadwa has indeed been pardoned on medical grounds. He is a Malawian and he is entitled to being pardoned just like any other Malawian prisoner,” said Mtengano.

Kadwa was convicted of soliciting K500 000 (about $737) as an inducement to take over a case from a fellow magistrate; accepting K150 000 as a reward for influencing a court decision and directing an accounts assistant to issue a K1 million (about $1 475) cheque as bail refund before a case was concluded