Malawi Police accused of receiving bribes to let suspects free

Blantyre residents have blamed Malawi Police for the increase of mob justice cases in the city saying the law enforcers receiving bribes to let the suspects free as such people would want to punish them on their own.

Recently, Police in Limbe rescued a man from a mob who caught him attempting to steal a Toyota Platz registration number SA 382.

The suspect unlocked the car and perched himself at the driver’s seat in the vehicle that was parked near Kapenga butchery.

In interviews with Malawi24, residents of Nancholi blamed Malawi Police arguing that justice is not fostered once people have been arrested by the law enforcers.

“It is not our wish that we should be taking laws into our hands but we feel that justice is delayed when people are arrested by the police,” said Anthony Chanza.

Another resident, Chimwemwe James said: “We are always surprised when we see people who were arrested moving freely around because they paid money at the police station for them to be released.”

While Lisa Kumwembe said: “Our laws are weak. Mob justice is very powerful. people learn lessons from bad behavior though others die when they are in the hands of cruel people.” But Blantyre Police spokesperson Elizabeth Divala said police officers follow the constitution of Malawi.

“We follow what is in the constitution, a person who has been arrested is released after 48 hours. For some crimes like murder we don’t release the suspect, our duty is to make sure that suspects are brought before court of law for their charges,” said Divala.

Divala further condemned some relatives of suspects who give money to law enforcers for their relations to be released on bail.

“I am not siding with my fellow police officers but sometimes it is very tempting to see some relatives of a suspect offering money,” Divala said.

“For your own information corruption is between the two but later the police get a bad image.”