Chilima case ruling set for Tuesday
High Court of Malawi Financial Crimes Division Judge Redson Kapindu will on Tuesday deliver a ruling on whether further disclosures should be submitted in the corruption case involving Vice-President Saulos Chilima.
In the case, Chilima is accused of having received unspecified sum of money from United Kingdom-based businessperson Zunneth Sattar to allegedly influence public contracts in his favour.
Reads a notice of delivery of ruling dated March 22, 2024 addressed to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), which is prosecuting the matter, and defence lawyers: “Take notice that the court shall deliver its ruling on the defendant’s application for further disclosure of the various documents in this matter on Tuesday, the 2nd of April 2024 at 2 O’clock in the afternoon, in open court at Lilongwe”.
The ruling is expected to settle the heated contest between Chilima’s lawyers and Malawi Defence Force (MDF).
The defence is seeking more disclosures from the State, but the MDF is objecting on grounds of relevance and national security concern.
The sought disclosures include minutes of the Defence Council Meeting held on October 16 2020 authorising the procurement of armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and a memorandum of March 2021 from the MDF to President Lazarus Chakwera seeking authorisation to procure APCs from Malachite FZE, a company linked to Sattar, using single sourcing.
Initially, the MDF refused to submit the documents to the graft-busting agency citing national security concerns and lack of relevance to the Chilima case.
But on January 12 2024, Kapindu ordered the MDF to provide these documents to which the military complied.
Based on his January 12 judgement, the judge is expected to decide on two key issues, first on whether the information is indeed sensitive from a national security perspective that it may not be used as evidence in this court in any form, and secondly, the extent to which such evidence is relevant, if at all, to the defence case.
In its submission to the court during an earlier hearing, the defence, led by former Attorney General Kalekeni Kaphale insisted on these disclosures, saying without them, their client would not be subjected to a fair trial.
On the other hand, MDF said sharing such documents may undermine national security and that the said disclosures are not relevant to the case.
Chilima was arrested in November 2022. He was named among 84 individuals who are suspected to have received bribes from Sattar, according to a report the ACB submitted to President Chakwera in 2022.
