Mpinganjira freed on court bail

Corruption convict Thom Mpinganjira yesterday got a relief when the Supreme Court of Appeal in Blantyre granted him bail pending appeal hearing on his conviction and sentence.

The business mogul has spent 122 days at Blantyre Prison, popularly known as Chichiri Prison, since conviction before Supreme Court of Appeal Justice Frank Kapanda freed him following his application for bail.

The businessperson and philanthropist was on October 5 last year sentenced to nine years imprisonment after the High Court of Malawi found him guilty of attempting to bribe five judges who presided over the May 21 2019 presidential election nullification petition.

In his judgement yesterday, Justice Kapanda observed that the interest of justice in the matter would be better served if Mpinganjira was released on bail pending his appeal.

Mpinganjira’s lead lawyer Alexious Nampota in an interview expressed delight with the ruling claiming the court had seen there were prospects of success in his appeal against conviction and sentence.

Said Nampota: “The court has cited exceptional conditions including his health condition that would require him to be out of prison so that he can attend to his medical condition. He has also observed that the interjections by the judge during the trial interfered with his right to a fair trial.”

“A collective examination of all those show that the interest of justice would be better served if Mpinganjira stays out of prison while waiting for judgement on his appeal. The judge actually recognised the fact that putting somebody with prospects of success in jail endangers the accused person.”

State counsel Victor Chiwala said they welcomed the court’s ruling and would wait for the actual hearing of Mpinganjira’s appeal.

“We have accepted the ruling. There is nothing new, people make an appeal but it’s up to the court to decide. Now, the court has made a determination we have accepted and there is nothing we can do about it,” he said.

On the court’s findings, Chiwala could neither agree nor disagree with the court saying “there are some points which the court agreed with us but

there are also some on which the court agreed with the other party.”

The court, on January 13 this year, reserved its ruling on Mpinganjira’s bail application challenging High Court Judge John Chirwa’s decision to set aside his bail application pending appeal.

In dismissing Mpinganjira’s application for bail on December 22 2021, Judge Chirwa observed the grounds the convict based his bail application on had no merit, as such, were not exceptional to warrant him release pending appeal.

But Mpinganjira’s lawyers challenged the decision arguing the State did not prove the businessman offered money to the five judges as none of them testified in court that money exchanged hands between them and the convict.

Mpinganjira was arrested in January 2020 following a complaint former Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda lodged with the Anti-Corruption Bureau that there were attempts to bribe the five High Court judges that were sitting as a Constitutional Court to rule in favour of the then governing Democratic Progressive Party president Peter Mutharika in the presidential election nullification petition.

The businessman was answering six charges under the Corrupt Practices Act, but was convicted on two counts.

He was found guilty on September 10 2021 by High Court Judge Dorothy DeGabrielle who sentenced him to nine years imprisonment.