By Isaac Salima:
Blantyre Chief Resident Magistrate Chisomo Msokera has ordered the Ministry of Homeland Security and Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services to present to the Anti- Corruption Bureau (ACB) remaining documents in the case involving former Homeland Security minister Cecilia Chazama and former immigration chief Masauko Medi and others.
Chazama, Medi and four other public servants are answering charges of abuse of office in the way they handled the recruitment of 127 immigration assistants.
On Monday, when the case returned to court after its adjournment last year, ACB lawyers expressed worry over delays to provide them with documents which they say are crucial in backing their evidence in the case.
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The ACB prosecution team told the court that they have been struggling to access the documents from the ministry and the Immigration Department.
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Making his ruling Tuesday, Msokera agreed with ACB on the relevance of the documents and directed the Immigration Department to make available minutes about the recruitment of the officials to the ACB legal team.
The court also ordered the ministry to present all communications they received from Medi on the recruitment exercise.
ACB lawyers have also been told to present documents they will get from the ministry and the Immigration Department to defence lawyers by May 14 2024.
The case has since been adjourned to May 20 and 21 2024.
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Defence lawyer Bright Theu expressed satisfaction with the ruling and said they were looking forward to getting the documents.
In 2017, the Immigration Department recruited 127 immigration assistants who were deployed to the department’s offices across the country.
However, investigations revealed that there were some anomalies in the recruitment process, leading to the arrest of Chazama, Medi and other public officers for alleged abuse of office.
In a previous hearing, the first State witness Daston Manda, who is former Immigration Department principal human resources officer, implicated former State House officials and Cabinet ministers, alleging that they provided names to be considered for the job.
