The Malawi Law Society (MLS) has thrown down the gauntlet against Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Fostino Maele, questioning whether the country’s prosecutorial powers are being used to fight corruption—or to shield the politically connected.
In an extraordinary and unusually blunt statement released on Thursday, the country’s legal watchdog condemned the planned withdrawal of the high-profile corruption case against Chinese businessman Lin Yunhua, saying the decision threatens the integrity of the justice system and risks convincing Malawians that there is one law for the powerful and another for everyone else.
The Society says it is alarmed that the Anti-Corruption Bureau has moved to discontinue Republic v Lin Yunhua on the instructions of the DPP before the courts have had an opportunity to hear and evaluate the evidence.
“The Society questions why a corruption-related case should be discontinued without the evidence being subjected to judicial scrutiny,” the statement says.
But it is the Society’s warning over an apparent conflict of interest that delivers the sharpest blow.
The lawyers reveal that Lin Yunhua was previously a client of Maele before he became Director of Public Prosecutions, saying the relationship creates an unavoidable perception that prosecutorial discretion may not be entirely free from personal considerations.
“The Society is further concerned that the accused person was previously a client of Mr. Maele before his appointment as DPP. This creates an apparent conflict of interest,” the Society says.
It has challenged Maele to withdraw from the decision.
“The Society urges Mr. Maele to reconsider his position and to avoid any perception that prosecutorial power is being exercised for personal or improper purposes.”
The Lin Yunhua matter, the Society says, is not an isolated incident.
Instead, it points to what it describes as an increasingly disturbing pattern in which criminal prosecutions involving politically connected individuals or former clients of the DPP are being abandoned.
“The pattern of discontinued cases is troubling,” the Society says.
“Based on information available to the Society, many of the affected cases involve political figures aligned with the current government and/or former clients of Mr. Maele.”
Although the Constitution grants the DPP broad prosecutorial powers, the Society warns that constitutional authority cannot be divorced from public accountability.
“Equality before the law must apply to all persons without discrimination,” the lawyers say, warning that repeated discontinuance of high-profile cases in a country battling entrenched corruption is rapidly eroding public trust.
The Society’s intervention comes against the backdrop of Malawi’s stagnant score of 34 out of 100 on the Corruption Perceptions Index, a rating it says reflects the public’s deepening belief that corruption continues to flourish while accountability weakens.
The blistering criticism forms part of a wider indictment of the country’s governance, delivered as Malawi marked 62 years of independence.
In one of the statement’s most striking observations, the Society said Independence Day passed without celebration because many citizens no longer see tangible reasons to celebrate.
“For most Malawians, the day passed like any other day. There was nothing really to celebrate.”
The lawyers accuse authorities of failing to implement landmark judicial reforms, delaying the swearing-in of members of the Judicial Service Commission, and leaving the Anti-Corruption Bureau without a substantive director for more than two years despite repeated assurances that the appointment would be made.
“Acting appointments must not become the norm in a country already suffering the corrosive effects of corruption,” the Society warns.
It also paints a grim picture of a nation weighed down by nepotism, abuse of office, misuse of public resources and worsening economic hardship, arguing that the constitutional promise of development is steadily slipping away.
To prevent future abuse of prosecutorial discretion, the Society is proposing constitutional amendments that would give Parliament greater oversight over decisions by the Director of Public Prosecutions to discontinue criminal proceedings and allow courts to review such decisions where necessary.
The statement concludes with a stark warning that independence has little meaning if public institutions fail to uphold justice.
“The promise of independence will remain incomplete unless public power is exercised lawfully, public resources are protected, and every citizen can live with dignity under a just and accountable constitutional order.”
This story was updated on 9 July, 2026
By Zelina Msopa
