President Lazarus Chakwera ordered the discontinuation of the case against former President Bakili Muluzi because he believes the arrest of Muluzi was politically motivated despite Muluzi repaying K86 million out of the K1.7 billion he was suspected to have diverted to his accounts.
Chakwera’s Malawi Congress Party (MCP) released a statement yesterday, days after the High Court freed Muluzi of all corruption charges following the state’s decision to discontinue the case.
According to the statement signed by MCP publicity secretary Ezekiel Ching’oma, the decision to discontinue Muluzi’s case fits well with Chakwera’s agenda of strict observance of the rule of law.
Ching’oma in the statement says it is unfortunate that the case was not prosecuted to conclusion for 16 years since Muluzi’s first arrest in 2006.
In the wisdom of Chakwera and his MCP, the delay to prosecute the corruption case against shows that the case was politically motivated and a witch-hunt of Muluzi by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) which was in power when Muluzi was first arrested in 2006 as well as in 2009 when Muluzi was also arrested.
“DPP fabricated the charges against Muluzi to harass, torture, intimidate and silence him as he was the sole critical voice of the DPP led government after Bingu Wa Mutharika resigned from the United Democratic Front (UDF), the party that sponsored him to power,” reads part of the statement.
Ching’oma further says in the statement that the MCP government by freeing Muluzi has made sure that justice is served and that the legal system operates fairly without political interference.
The MCP has also argued that the government was wasting taxpayers’ money in prosecuting Muluzi in a case in which there was a “lack of evidence”.
According to the MCP, Chakwera also believes that former presidents should be accorded respect and dignity instead of humiliation, torture and harassment.
“It was sad to see Muluzi suffering at the hands of the DPP,” the MCP says in its testament.
Despite the MCP’s claims, the Chakwera administration has freed Muluzi after he paid back K86 million out of the K1.7 billion he was accused of embezzling.
According to a published report, Muluzi refunded the sum which relates to payments from the Japanese government initially amounting to K19 million kwacha allegedly abused by Muluzi.
Meanwhile, critics have described Chakwera’s decision to end the Muluzi case as a blow to the fight against corruption in Malawi.
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