Anti-Corruption Bureau parades last witness in Thomson Mpinganjira’s case
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has finished arguing its case against business mogul Thomson Mpinganjira in the judge bribery case.
The ACB finished by parading Dan Mponda who is the bureau’s Director of Investigations, after parading five judges.
These are Justices Michael Tembo, Redson Kapindu and Dingiswayo Madise of High Court and Justices Healy Potani and Ivy Kamanga of the Supreme Court of Appeal.
The justices however were all High Court Judges at the time; who heard the presidential election case.
ACB Director Reyneck Matemba said he was satisfied with the evidence presented in court.
“Normally at this state even if you have overwhelming evidence, defence lawyers will say there is no case to answer while the state will say there is a case to answer.
“We will be making a case for a case to answer and as expected, the defence will say Dr. Mpinganjira does not have a case to answer,” he said.
The court has since given both sides a chance to make their submissions on whether after the state’s arguments, a prima-facie case has been made against Mpinganjira requiring him to enter defence or not.
Mpinganjira’s lawyer Patrice Nkhono told the court outright that he will be making a case for no case to answer.
Nkhono however said it is going to be difficult to put together a case in five days.
“You know there were huge volumes of evidence to be looked at. It is difficult to go through all that and make a case within five days but that is what the court has said,” he said.
Yesterday, Justice Kamanga was the last among the judges to testify against Mpinganjira.
Justice Kamanga corroborated narratives made by the other justices that Mpinganjira contacted the judges that he had a parcel for them.
In cross-examination, Justice Kamanga conceded that she was not part of the conversations Mpinganjira had with Justices Tembo and Potani.
She however said after listening to a recorded conversation between Mpinganjira and Justice Tembo and seeing WhatsApp messages between Mpinganjira and Justice Potani, she can vouch for the truthfulness of the conversations.
Justice Kamanga also said she did not see the alleged parcel containing money first hand but after listening to the recorded conversation between Mpinganjira and Justice Tembo and also after seeing WhatsApp messages between Mpinganjira and Justice Potani, she believes that the parcel really existed.
In his testimony, ACB’s Mponda said Mpinganjira confirmed to have contacted Justices Tembo and Potani but said he wanted to discuss with the judges ‘issues of national importance’.
At the height of the presidential election case, the country’s Chief Justice, Andrew Nyirenda deposited a letter to the ACB, explaining that the judges hearing the presidential election case had reported alleged bribery attempts by Mpinganjira, with a view that the five judges should rule in favour of former president Peter Mutharika.
