Chisale demands K500m from AG

Former president Peter Mutharika’s private bodyguard Norman Chisale has written the Attorney General (AG) Thabo Chakaka-Nyirenda demanding K500 million in compensation claims.

His intention to sue the AG follows the High Court judgement in April last year that acquitted him in a case he was answering two counts of attempted murder of Sigele Amani and doing an act prejudicial to public safety.

In a letter dated February 25 2022, Chisale, through his lawyer Chancy Gondwe of Gondwe and Attorneys, claims that despite the matter being reported as accidental shooting, the State changed the complaint to be an attempted murder.

He further claims that the State influenced Amani to change her stand to make the matter an attempted murder.

Reads the letter in part: “We are claiming damages for false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and defamation on behalf of our client for about K500 000 000.

“Take note that if we do not hear from you within the next 90 days on how you intend to compensate our client for the false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and defamation, we have strict instructions to commence legal action against you without any further recourse to you whatsoever.”

In the ruling on April 16 2021, High Court Judge Sylvester Kalembera found the claimant with no case to answer. The judge also noted that Chisale’s shooting of Amani was accidental and in self defence.

In an interview yesterday, Chakaka-Nyirenda declined to give his position on Chisale’s claims. He said he had not yet seen the claim as at 5:20pm yesterday.

“The problem is that I have not seen the claim yet, so it might be difficult for me to comment,” he said.

Chisale was arrested on July 17 2020 and released on court bail on July 28 2020 after staying 11 days in custody in connection with the shooting of Amani on May 21 2020 in Chimwankhunda residential area in Blantyre.

He was arrested few minutes after being released on court bail in another case where he was charged with fraud and money laundering.

During the trial in February last year, the State paraded the victim as its first witness, but she stunned the court by refusing to be a witness, saying that she had withdrawn her case against Chisale.

The K500 million claim comes at a time government is currently fighting K2 trillion total claims through the office of the AG.

The AG told yesterday’s The Nation that his office receives new claims daily, with most of them coming from police on false imprisonment, land disputes, construction projects, procurement and Malawi Rural Electrification Project (Marep).

Nyirenda noted that most of the claims were exaggerated.

“At the same time we are receiving more claims, at the same time we have got cases that have been dismissed in our favour,” he said. However, according to the AG, the top four claims include those from four businesspersons, including Abdul Karim Batatawala (K250 billion), Ramchand Hashmatrai (131 billion), Shiraz Ferreira (K30 billion) and Leston Mulli of Mulli Brothers Limited (K18 billion).