Court orders K335m Cashgate case restart
The High Court in Lilongwe yesterday ordered restart of a Cashgate case after the prosecution added a second defendant to the case in which businessperson Muzipasi Moyo is facing charges of theft and facilitating money laundering.
This will further delay the prosecution of Cashgate cases as currently only 15 out of 69 cases are active in the courts, according to a recent Nation on Sunday investigation.
The case was due to resume over a year after it first started, but a government official, Felistas Njathu, has been added as co-accused person after fresh investigations into the loss of K334.9 million from public coffers.
Special prosecutor Enoch Chibwana also applied to the court to amend charges so that Moyo and Njathu are jointly charged with theft and money laundering K334.9 million.
High Court judge Dorothy NyaKaunda-Kamanga ordered the restart, arguing that continuing the case with mere cross-examination of two witnesses who the State already paraded would be unfair to the new accused person, Njathu, who is yet to take plea.
Said the judge: “Having reached this refreshed stage and much as I would want this trial prosecuted at a reasonable speed and since the first accused was not available when the two witnesses appeared in court, I order a trial de novo recalling all witnesses. Trial will recommence so that we start from the same footing.”
Earlier, Moyo’s lawyer, Gilbert Khonyongwa, raised no objections to the amendment of the charges or to the application to cross-examine the two witnesses.
However, lawyers Nicely Msowoya and Atupele Nyalira, who are defending Njathu, asked the court for more time to go over records of the two witnesses’ earlier appearance before cross-examining them but Justice NyaKaunda Kamanga granted them further relief with the order of trial de novo.
The prosecution plans to parade seven witnesses when trial restarts on May 27 and 28 this year. n
