Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal has refused to release former Minister of Homeland Security Uladi Mussa on bail pending determination of his appeal case.
Mussa who is serving a five-year sentence for abuse of office, applied for bail citing the delay of the start of his appeal case at the Supreme Court as the main reason he should be granted bail.
Justice of Appeal Lovemore Chikopa delivered ruling on the ball application on Friday. The judge dismissed the application for bail pending appeal, saying Mussa had failed to show how the bail would be in the interest of justice.
“When we talk of instances where bail pending appeal has been granted we are really talking of cases where the applicants were able to show to the satisfaction of the court that it was in the interests of justice that the convicts be admitted to bail pending appeal,” Chikopa said in the ruling.”
Mussa was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in 2017 for fraudulently issuing citizenships and passports to Burundians and Rwandans among other foreign nationals when he was the Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security.
Together with former regional Immigration officer David Kwanjana, he was sentenced to five years in prison in 2020.
Mussa used to be the Vice President of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for the Central Region and before his conviction he expressed interest to contest for the position of DPP president.
