Mchacha, Vuwa, two others get court relief
Court burdens eased yesterday for two former Cabinet ministers and two others when principal resident magistrate Viva Nyimba quashed their corruption charges and softened bail conditions in their case on land acquisition in Blantyre.
Ex-ministers Symon Vuwa Kaunda and Charles Mchacha, and ex-chief secretary to the president and Cabinet Lloyd Muhara and Principal Secretary for Defence Bright Kumwembe were arrested last year in connection with alleged illegal acquisition of government land by Mchacha.
But in court in Lilongwe yesterday, Nyimba quashed the corruption charges which were tied to a request the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) had made to have the case tried in the High Court.
In his ruling—after which he adjourned the case to February 2—the magistrate noted that the ACB had not obtained prior consent from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), within the required time frame of 14 days, for the High Court trial.
The Corrupt Practices Act provides that ACB gets consent to prosecute from the DPP within 14 days from the arrest of suspects.
The ACB wanted the matter to be tried in the High Court but since the newly-appointed DPP Steve Kayuni is yet to be confirmed by the Public Appointments Committee of Parliament, he does not have authority to issue such consent. On this basis, the court also declared invalid a certificate for summary proceedings signed by Kayuni.
“Since there is no consent from the Director of Public Prosecutions, the charges under Corrupt Practices Act fall out and ACB has to come up with new charges,” Nyimba said, stressing that without the DPP consent, the court does not have jurisdiction to preside over the corruption charges.
However the court has maintained charges under the Penal Code against the four suspects.
Mchacha faced three charges, inducing enticing public officers to perform their functions corruptly. Muhara was charged with abuse of office, Kaunda was charged with abuse of office and transaction with a private individual, while Kumwembe was charged with giving false information.
After considering prosecution and defence arguments, Nyimba also quashed bail conditions for the suspects. They are now on bail without conditions.
Among the conditions that the court had set to release the suspects on bail were payment of a bail bond of K500 000 each, production of a surety each, bonded at K500 000 non cash, reporting to the ACB fortnightly and surrendering of travel documents.
On the Penal Code, Mchacha was charged with the use of insulting language, while Muhara and Kumwembe were both charged with neglect of official duty.
ACB lawyer Victor Chiwala said the graft-busting body will amend the charge sheet and come up with one that has Penal Code charges against all the four suspects.
He earlier asked the court to consider upholding the bail conditions saying they also applied to the charges under the Penal Code.
However, the court maintained its stand to withdraw the bail conditions, saying if the ACB wants bail conditions attached to Penal Code charges, the bail conditions will be made after they come up with fresh charge sheet for Penal Code offences.
