Malawi High court in Lilongwe has rejected bail application for thearrested former Minister of Justice Ralph Kasambara and adjourning thecase to November 22, 2013.
This then means the ex-justice minister—and a well known respected lawyer in Malawi—will remain in the cooler for nine more days despite his lawyer pleading with the judge that Kasambara was ill.
Kasambara was arrested on Friday and on Monday was officially charged of attempt murder on the country’s Ministry of Finance Director of Budget Paul Mphwiyo who is currently recuperating in South Africa.
Government claims that Mr Phwiyo was gunned down because was about to expose massive theft in government.
State prosecutor Bruno Kalemba told the court that Kasambara was well taken care of in the holding cell and has since received treatment for his illness.
The High Court Judge Esmie Chombo sided with prosecution team and granted more time to proceed with the investigations on the matter.
“The decision whether to grand Mr Kasambara bail or continue being held will be made on November 22, 2013. Mr Kasambara must have access to medication while he is in the cell,” she said.
Lawyers representing government argued in court that due to the complexity of the case they would need at least 30 days or more to complete the investigations.
However Chombo only granted the prosecution team only nine days.
Kasambara’s lawyer Vincent Gondwe told the court that his client, Kasambara was very ill in prison and need urgent medical attention.
On his first appearance in court Kasambara bragged that there was no case against him and that government was only trying to punish him for no reason joking telling the journalists to take good pictures of him and tag him on facebook.
Kasambara is facing charges of attempted murder in the shooting of the budget director Mphwiyo in September this year and has since named Malawi President Joyce Banda, Minister of Information Brown Mpinganjira and Banda’s Party spokesperson as his witness in court.
According to the state house spokesperson Steven Nhlane, President Banda has expressed shock at her being mentioned in court as the witness to the jailed former justice minister.
However Nhlane could not disclose whether the president is going to appear in court to testify on behalf of Kasambara. President Banda fired Mr Kasambara in the recent cabinet dissolution.
