Uladi Mussa passport scam trial in court Thursday
The High Court in Lilongwe will Thursday continue hearing a corruption case involving former minister of Home Affairs Uladi Mussa and former chief citizenship officer at the Immigration Department David Kwanjana.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in March last year arrested Mussa, who is also Member of Parliament (MP) for Salima South Constituency, and Kwanjana, on allegations that they fraudulently issued citizenships and passports to Burundians and Rwandans, among other foreign nationals.
According to the ACB, the two allegedly received bribes from foreigners in exchange for Malawian passports when Mussa was minister.
A court document reads that Mussa fraudulently granted citizenship documents to more than 50 foreigners in 2013.
Mussa and Kwanjana were charged with neglect of official duty contrary to Section 121 of the Penal Code and abuse of public office contrary to Section 25B(1) of the Corrupt Practices Act.
However, the court has cleared former Chief Immigration Officer, Hudson Mankhwala, who was also jointly charged with Mussa.
In a communication issued yesterday, the ACB said the case will continue tomorrow.
Earlier, Mussa denied the charges, describing them as a political move to silence him.
Mussa was then acting president of opposition People’s Party (PP). But amid the investigations of the case last year, Mussa made a stunning declaration of intent to grab the PP’s presidency from Joyce Banda.
Mussa was then removed as the party’s acting president. During the tabling of the Elections Reforms (Amendment) Bills in Parliament last year, Mussa was among the MPs who sided with the ruling DPP to shoot down the bills, a move which other quarters speculated was a trade-off for his case.
On Monday, Mussa, alongside Ralph Jooma, was expelled from the party on Monday for what the party say was on grounds of destabilising the party and aligning to the ruling DPP against the party’s stand
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