By Cathy Maulidi & Rebecca Chimjeka Matemba:
After almost three-year wait, there is now movement on the case involving former lands minister Kezzie Msukwa and Zuneth Sattar’s associate, Ashok Kumar.
The Supreme Court of Appeal has set Wednesday, June 11, as a date it will deliver a judgement on an appeal which Msukwa and Kumar, popularly known as Ashok Nair, made against the decision by the lower court that allowed the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to use foreign sourced evidence in Malawi court.
Msukwa and Kumar were arrested in December 2021 on corruption allegations related to land deals with Sattar, a Malawian-born businessperson based in the United Kingdom.
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Coincidentally, the movement on Msukwa and Kumar’s case comes at a time the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in the United Kingdom (UK) has formerly charged Sattar over bribery allegations.
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The UK’s National Crimes Agency (NCA) arrested Sattar four years ago.
In the appeal in 2022, Msukwa through his lawyer, Chimwemwe Kalua, challenged the arrest and prosecution of Msukwa based on information gathered from the NCA.
In a court document that we have seen, the Supreme Court of Appeal will sit from 10 am on Wednesday in Lilongwe to deliver the judgement of the appeal.
This case has stalled since July 2022 after the Supreme Court of Appeal judge Frank Kapanda granted an order stopping the ACB from starting proceedings against Msukwa pending the appeal.
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In an affidavit in support of Msukwa’s application, his lawyer Kalua argued that the information the ACB obtained on Sattar, which led to Msukwa’s investigations and subsequent arrest, was illegally obtained.
He said it was sourced without being sanctioned by a cooperation arrangement between Malawi through the Attorney General and the UK government or the NCA.
The appeal, which came in form of a Judicial review, came before the High Court Judge in the financial crimes division, Redson Kapindu.
Kapindu dismissed it in May 2022.
Now ACB spokesperson, Egrita Ndala, said in an interview last evening that the judgment would determine whether the case continues.
“The judgment is crucial as it will determine the future of the case, since their challenge was that the evidence we have is inadmissible in a Malawian court,” Ndala said.
Friday, the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in the UK formerly charged Sattar who joined the proceedings virtually.
He is facing 18 charges related to bribing foreign public officials in Malawi, mostly senior government officials and top politicians, to secure lucrative contracts in government institutions.
The charges, under sections 6 and 11 of the Bribery Act 2010 according to the UK court documents, allege that Sattar sought to “obtain or retain business or an advantage in the conduct of business” through illicit payments.
The 18 charges detail a series of alleged bribes offered to various Malawian public officials between December 2020 and August 2021.
The officials named in the charge sheet include the late vice president Saulos Chilima, former Inspector General of Police George Kainja and lawyer John Suzi Banda.
In the Westminster court yesterday, Sattar did not indicate how he intended to plead to the charges, according to British media.
District Judge Tan Ikram read out the charges.
Ikram has since released Sattar, who is currently residing in Leicester, central England, on conditional bail ahead of a further hearing in the case at Southwark Crown Court, which is expected to take place on June 26, 2025.
Edward Brown KC [King’s Counsel] of QEB Hollis Whiteman, counsel for the prosecution, said that the charges concerned alleged bribes paid by Sattar or his agents to “high-ranking officials” in the Malawi government in return for the awarding of contracts to companies he controlled.
The contracts that were allegedly awarded in return for the bribes included a $28 million contract for anti-riot equipment and a $7.8 million contract for food rations packages, the barrister said.
They also allegedly included a contract worth approximately $20 million for 32 armoured personnel carriers, Brown added.
Simon Farrell KC of Three Raymond Buildings, representing Sattar, said that his client had first been arrested during a National Crime Agency investigation in October 2021 and was arrested on a second occasion in March 2022.
Here at home, the National Anti-Corruption Alliance (Naca) has hailed the indictment of Sattar by authorities in the United Kingdom, describing it as a historic milestone in Malawi’s struggle against grand corruption and state capture.
In a statement released on Friday, Naca Chairperson Michael Kaiyatsa said the 18-count bribery charge levelled against Sattar under the UK Bribery Act sends a clear message that corruption will no longer be tolerated — whether at home or across borders.
“This development marks a historic step forward in the fight against grand corruption in Malawi — one of the most brazen and destructive networks of state capture in our nation’s post-independence history,” reads part of the statement.
Government spokesperson Moses Kunkuyu said interview yesterday that the progress of the case in a UK court does not invalidate the independence and prosecutorial integrity of the ACB.
He said the Malawi government, on its own, is clearly committed to the fight against corruption in the country.
“This is evidenced by the unprecedented capacitating of the ACB which is our graft busting body,” he said.
