Henry Mussa, Gideon Munthali plead for mercy
Lawyers representing former minister of information Henry Mussa and former director of information Gideon Munthali have pleaded with High Court Judge Patrick Chirwa to mete out a non-custodial sentence on the two.
Mussa and Munthali were on October 25 2022 found guilty in a case where they were answering charges of conspiracy to commit a felony, theft by public servants and receiving stolen items, in relation to the disappearance of 10 computers and a genset.
The items belonged to the Ministry of Information.
When the convicts appeared in court for a sentencing hearing, their lawyers pleaded with Chirwa, who is handling the case in his former capacity as Lilongwe Chief Resident Magistrate, to allow them to do community work.
“We humbly ask the court to be lenient when it comes to sentencing the first accused. He is a first-time offender and already paid over K7 million and returned some items to government,” Mussa’s lawyer Kalekeni Kaphale said.
Kaphale argued that Mussa may not survive in jail because he is of advanced years and that he is sick.
He pleaded that a sentence of one-and-a-half years could be ideal.
Munthali’s lawyer Crispin M’dala also asked the court to be lenient with his client who, together with Mussa, will be sentenced on Thursday next week.
The State, however, argued for custodial sentences to be meted out on the two.
While in the dock, Mussa and Munthali looked calm and composed.
Computers that were reportedly misappropriated by the two were donated to the ministry by the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority.
