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Itaye, others plead not guilty

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ormer Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) director general Godfrey Itaye and his two co-accused yesterday pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud and abuse of office levelled against them.

Itaye, Macra director of finance Ben Chitsonga and the regulatory authority’s procurement specialist Joseph Ngalawa are being accused of abuse of office by authorising payment of over K8 million for former governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) cloth last year and payment of about K135 million for the institution’s calendars.

Pleaded not guilty: Itaye

The three appeared before acting chief resident magistrate Godfrey Balaka to take plea following an adjournment last Monday when lawyer for the accused Clement Mwala asked for more time to study disclosures before advising his clients on how to take plea.

After they pleaded not guilty, senior assistant chief State advocate Dzikondianthu Malunda asked the court to impose bail conditions on the three since they were granted police bail.

The lawyer asked the court to, among others, let the accused persons surrender their passports and apply to the court whenever they want to leave the country, saying that would ensure that the case is administered efficiently.

In an interview after yesterday’s hearing, Malunda said the State is ready to proceed with the case once trial starts.

He said: “The case came for hearing today, specifically for plea-taking and the accused persons have all denied the charges. What will happen is that at the next hearing, the State will bring witnesses, we have seven in total. The State will start parading these witnesses to prove a case against the accused persons.”

However, Mwala was not available for comment on the matter soon after the hearing.

Meanwhile, Balaka has set March 5 as the date the trial will start with the  State parading the witnesses and the acting chief magistrate ruling on imposing bail conditions.

Itaye was arrested on September 1 2020, barely few days after Chitsonga and Ngalawa’s arrests by police in Blantyre.

The three were kept at Blantyre Police Station before they were released on police bail.

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