Defence wants ex-minister Mwanamvekha discharged

 The defence has asked the Chief Resident Magistrate’s Court in Lilongwe to discharge former minister of Finance Joseph Mwanamvekha from a case he is accused of misreporting on Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) foreign exchange reserve.

Through his lawyer Mercy Chijere, the former minister, who is answering charges of abuse of office and fraudulent false accounting, argued that the State has failed to comply with court directions regarding service of disclosures.

She said the State was supposed to serve the disclosures by February 10 2022, but has failed to do so even after being served with certificate of non-compliance.

Chijere said the State has failed to serve the defence with disclosures despite arresting Mwanamvekha on December 7 2021 and has, instead, been seeking an extension of time to finalise investigation.

She said: “It is now six months since the first accused was arrested and State is not ready. It is clear that the State arrested him when they did not have enough evidence to start trial.

“ They had not completed investigations. It was abuse of the legal process to arrest him when investigations had not been completed.”

But the State objected to the application, saying the State will file disclosures in three days and serve on the defence team.

Senior State advocate Festus Sakanda said the State required more time because towards the end of investigations, it transpired that there was need for more arrests.

However, the defence argued that it was not the first time the State had indicated that they were done with investigations, claiming they did the same on December 20 2021.

Chief resident magistrate Madalitso Chimwaza has since reserved ruling on the application for July 13.

Mwanamveka and former RBM governor Dalitso Kabambe are accused of having provided wrong information to the International Monetary Fund to paint a picture that Malawi Government was meeting conditions for the award of $108 million Extended Credit Facility (ECF) in 2019.