Pika Manondo seeks bail
Pika Manondo, one of the suspects in the shooting of Ministry of Finance budget director Paul Mphwiyo, has applied to the High Court in Lilongwe to grant him bail 10 days after he handed himself to police.
Manondo’s lawyer, John-Gift Mwakhwawa, said in an interview yesterday his client was not afraid of being released as his delay in seeking bail implied.
Said the lawyer: “We have made the application for bail and we will be filing with the High Court [in Lilongwe] today and hopefully we will be given audience this week.”
Mwakhwawa said his client believed in the due process of the law, hence he turned himself in upon learning that police were searching for him.
Manondo was on Friday transferred to Kasungu Prison from Area 3 Police Station where he was being kept following his arrest on Thursday, November 7 2013.
Mwakhwawa said police have not explained to him and Manondo’s family reasons for the transfer.
“There is no valid reason for such a transfer and such a transfer in our view is contrary to the dictates of the law in terms of treatment of a suspect. The crimes he’s alleged to have committed took place in Lilongwe, he has relatives in Lilongwe. We find no reason except to deny his lawyer, his relatives and personal doctors access to him,” he observed.
Before his arrest, Manondo promised to reveal how certain influential people managed to abuse the Integrated Financial Management Information System (Ifmis) to siphon billions of kwacha from government coffers.
Mwakhwawa said his client had complied with police investigations and there was no longer need to keep him in custody.
Two other people charged with attempted murder of Mphwiyo, former minister of Justice Ralph Kasambara and his bodyguard Keston Gani, have not been released on bail.
The court will on November 22 decide whether Kasambara should be released on bail pending trial.
And another suspect connected to the Capital Hill cashgate, businessperson Oswald Lutepo, who has been charged with money laundering involving about K2.6 billion in public funds, was technically granted bail last week but the High Court in Zomba ordered that he remained in custody until December 6 2013 when the State is expected to have finalised investigations.
