ACB to appeal Viola suspended sentence
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) says it will appeal against the three-year suspended sentences given to former National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) deputy chief executive officer Gerald Viola and his co-convict Chrispin Chingola.
The two were arrested in October 2020 on allegations that they unilaterally issued a K3.3 billion local purchasing order (LPO) to Missie’s Trading to supply 10 000 metric tonnes of maize to the organisation.
On Monday, Lilongwe principal resident magistrate Viva Nyimba said he took into consideration the fact that both convicts were first offenders and they never got any economic benefits from the crime.
But in a brief statement yesterday, ACB principal public relations officer Egrita Ndala said the bureau would appeal the sentence.
She said: “On February 27 2023, the Principal Resident Magistrate Court in Lilongwe sentenced Mr Gerald Viola and Mr Chrispin Chingola to three years imprisonment. The court has suspended the sentence for two years.
“Mr Viola was convicted of abuse of office contrary to Section 25B (1) of the Corrupt Practices Act. [and] Mr Chingola was convicted for influencing a public officer to misuse a public office contrary to Section 25B (2) of the Corrupt Practices Act (CPA). The bureau will appeal against the sentence.”
In March 2022, Viola and Chingola were found with a case to answer on offences under the CPA and Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act.
After the ruling, Viola’s lawyer Luciano Mickeus said he was relieved that the court exercised mercy on his clients by granting them a suspended sentence.
He said: “Now that we have the judgement on liability as well as the sentence itself, it means we will go through them and map the way forward. Still the conviction stands, and a conviction has a number of consequences.
“We will look at it and see whether it is with merit to proceed with an appeal or not.”
In an interview, Viola said it was sad that he was given a suspended sentence because those fighting to put him in trouble would not be happy. “You heard the judgement that the LPO is intact. It never got issued anywhere else. But these people have been fighting me and I know they will take another step so that is why I am not happy because they are not happy,” he said.
