The High Court in Lilongwe has today, 24th April, dismissed the application for a stay and set aside of forfeiture order of Paul Phwiyo’s bonded property.
The wife of the former Budget Director, Thandizo Phwiyo, made the application in which she stated that the property in question, a house located in Lilongwe Area 43, is a matrimonial asset.
In her ruling, Judge Ruth Chinangwa stated that Mphwiyo’s release on bail was secured by bonded property and that the court found it interesting to note that the intervenor is picking and choosing which of the bonded property is matrimonial property.
The judge stated that the respondent should have been informed by the Counsel on the need to surrender properties that are free of encumbrances; and the consequences of absconding bail on the bonded properties.
‘The forfeiture order being a final judgement, this court becomes functus officio,’ reads part of Judge Chinangwa’s ruling before it stated, ‘The application for stay thus lacks merit and is dismissed”.
Phwiyo is now a fugitive from answering charges of the well-documented Cash-gate scandal that left billions of Malawi Kwacha rooted from the government in 2013.
Since his initial arrest, the former Budget Director was first granted bail in 2014. With his case dragging on, his whereabouts became unknown last year as records at the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) disclose that he last appeared for bail on June 2023.
Court served Mphwiyo’s wife with a notice to vacate the area 43 house by the end of April 2024.
