By Cathy Maulidi
High Court Judge Redson Kapindu Friday discharged Vice President Saulos Chilima from two counts which border on breach of trust by public officers.
According to Kapindu, the State introduced the charges after expiry of prescribed period when it could initiate commencement of trial and conclusion of the two counts by July 2022 having received the complaint in July 2021.
Chilima’s lawyer, Khumbo Soko, said in an interview that this now means that Chilima is remaining with three counts on his charge sheet. The counts are in relation to demanding unspecified sums of money from UK-based businessman Zunneth Sattar.
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“This is exciting development to us as we will now only concentrate on the remaining three counts,” Soko said.
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In his two hour ruling on the preliminary issues, Kapindu also ruled in favour of Chilima on the issue to have Malawi Defence Force (MDF) disclose evidence that Chilima requested.
In its submission, the defence requested MDF’s counsel minutes that allegedly approved the contract that Chilima is accused of influencing and the correspondence between President Lazarus Chakwera and MDF in relation to Zunneth Sattar to be disclosed.
But in their submissions, Attorney General, ACB and MDF argued that the documents are very confidential and have potential to affect national security.
On the other hand, the defence argued that the right to a fair trial supersedes the national security and the documents should be disclosed because of their relevance to the case.
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They further argued that there should be no fear when such confidential documents are used in favour of the general public.
In his ruling, Kapindu ordered the MDF to file the said sensitive documents being requested by Chilima to the court by Monday, 22 January 2024 before 10am.
“Much as the court acknowledges the submission that the documents cannot be disclosed due to their sensitivity, it is the court that has the exclusive power to determine. The court will not abdicate its role when such need arise,” Kapindu said.
The evidence, according to Kapindu, will be filed directly to his chamber to ascertain the sensitivity in question and the degree to which they can be used.
But the court ruled in favour of the State on one preliminary issue in which Chilima wanted the ACB to specify the bribe he is alleged to have pocketed to influence the awarding of the contract.
“In his observation, the judge says it is not common that when people are discussing bribes they would put details but there are words and actions and sometimes conduct that demonstrates and give you an indication that there was exchange of bribe.
“So it is for that reason that we did not specify the amount involved and we strongly believe that the evidence that will be given in court will give an understanding of what really happened,” ACB chief legal and prosecutions officer, Imran Saidi, said.
On the dropped charges, Saidi said they are not serious charges and will not affect their case that much.
According to him, the judge has left critical charges to still be answered by Chilli and this is good for them.
On the ruling on MDF, Saidi said: “We still stand by MDF that the documents are confidential and we are sure that after the court looks into them, it will still make similar stand like the one we made.
“So, it is our hope that the ruling will go in the same way that the documents be treated as confidential.”
Once MDF brings the documents by January 22, 2024, the court will communicate the next action.
In the event that MDF doesn’t bring the documents, the court will also provide direction to the case.
Chilima is answering charges of influencing the awarding of public contracts by allegedly demanding and accepting money from Sattar
