The corruption case in which businessperson Abdul Karim Batatawala and others are alleged to have conspired to defraud the government by inflating the market price of lockers procured by the Department of Immigration has now been certified as a constitutional matter.
Anti-Corruption Bureau Director General Martha Chizuma disclosed this on Wednesday when she updated Malawians on progress made in cases that are being prosecuted by the bureau.
“The matter is about mis-procurement at the Department of Immigration in 2009 and 2010. The bureau has since paraded eight witnesses.
“Following an application by the defence lawyer for Batatawala, the Chief Justice certified the matter as a constitutional matter on April 11 2023,” Chizuma said
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According to Chizuma, the matter awaits the empanelment of Constitutional Court judges.
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Batatawala and Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services former chief Elvis Thodi were charged with conspiracy to defraud by allegedly inflating the market price of lockers procured by the department from Batatawala’s firm.
They are facing up to 17 counts.
After parading eight witnesses in September last year, ACB made the court application as it wanted to amend the charge sheet by bringing new counts and making new disclosures in the form of sworn statements recorded in August when the trial was underway.
But Batatawala’s lawyers objected to the charge sheet amendment before Blantyre Senior Resident Magistrate Martin Chipofya last year.
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In another development, Chizuma said the unexplained-wealth case involving former President Peter Mutharika has not died and is jointly being handled by the offices of Director of Public Prosecutions, ACB and Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA).
Talking about the case involving alleged abuse of TPIN by the former president, the ACB head said they finished investigations into the issue and started making arrests.
She, however, said an issue arose with the office of DPP and everything was paused.
“Following recent discussions with the office of the DPP, technical officers from the DPP, MRA [Malawi Revenue Authority], ACB, FIA and police will be meeting soon to sort out the sticky issues and determine the way forward,” Chizuma said.
On Zuneth Sattar cases, Chizuma said the bureau started investigations into allegations that he was bribing public officers in order to get public contracts.
Chizuma admitted that the Sattar case is one of the most complex cases the bureau has handled, adding that, even though it is based on an allegation, there are several cases under it that touch on a number of institutions.
“Moreover, Mr. Sattar, being a British national, it raises inter-territory jurisdictional issues which the bureau continues to grapple with,” she said, adding that the bureau applied for Restriction Notice renewal on Sattar’s accounts, with the matter awaiting the court’s ruling.
The last restriction notice expired in August this year.
