The Lilongwe Senior Resident Patrick Chirwa has sentenced Victor Sithole, convicted in the cashgate case, to 9 years imprisonment with hard labour.
Sithole has been sentenced to one year imprisonment for illegal possession of foreign currency (forex), another one year for possession of property suspected to have been stolen and seven years for money laundering. The sentences will run consecutively.
Handing down the sentence, Chirwa said it would have been a mockery of justice to hand out a suspended sentence to such an offence. He added that Sithole did not deserve a short sentence as he was found culpable and sentencing below 6 years would be too short.
Sithole, a former government accounts assistant, was found in possession of US$31, 850 (K112 million) and R122, 000 (K5 million) in September 2013. The prosecution wants the money that Sithole stole to be forfeited to government.
He becomes the second Cashgate convict to be sentenced. Last month the High Court in Lilongwe sentenced former Ministry of Tourism Principal secretary Tressa Senzani to 3 years and nine months imprisonment on offences of money and theft.
