Judge reserves Mpinganjira bail ruling
High Court Judge John Chirwa yesterday reserved to a later date his ruling on an application by business mogul and philanthropist Thomson Mpinganjira for bail pending appeal against his conviction.
Mpinganjira wants the court to grant him bail pending his appeal on both his nine-year sentence and conviction on the basis that, among others, his conviction was not supported by evidence as there were no essential elements of the offences he was convicted of.
Before the hearing of the substantive application, the State through its lead prosecutor Chikumbutso Harawa objected the presence of private practice lawyer Lusungu Gondwe and his firm, Ritz Attorneys, as lawyers representing Mpinganjira.
He said High Court Judge Dorothy NyaKaunda Kamanga earlier made an order stopping Gondwe and his firm from representing Mpinganjira pending hearing of investigations of a disciplinary process by the Malawi Law Society (MLS).
Harawa, who is representing the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), argued that NyaKaunda Kamanga’s order, made on January 28 2020, still stands, .
But in defence, Ritz Attorneys argued that MLS undertook investigations and determined that it would not look further into the matter as Gondwe was already admonished by the court.
Delivering his judgement on the issue later in the afternoon, Chirwa upheld the State’s arguments and directed that Gondwe and his team should not represent Mpinganjira.
But the judge said the documents filed by the dismissed team would be maintained and hearing of the initial bail application proceeded with lawyers Alexious Nampota and Fostino Maele representing Mpinganjira.
In his submission, Harawa said Mpinganjira failed to show special circumstances warranting the court to grant him bail pending his appeal.
Chirwa, who heard the matter in his chamber, said he will deliver his judgement on a date to be communicated.
In an interview after the adjournment, Harawa said the State was looking forward to the ruling while Nampota said he did not have any instructions from his client to grant media interviews on the case.
