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Muluzi back in hospital in SA

Malawi’s former president Bakili Muluzi is admitted to hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, where doctors are checking on his slipped discs following past successive operations.

His admission casts doubts on the impending trial for the K1.7 billion graft case in the High Court which he denies.

One of his lawyers, Jai Banda, said Muluzi left the country on Wednesday last week.

But Banda refused to comment on his client’s health or whether the trial, which is scheduled for Monday, will take place.

“Let us wait until that day,” said Banda.

Recently, the former president was frequently spotted at public functions both locally and internationally, but he clarified that his presence does not mean that he is now fully recovered from the operations on slipped discs.

In July, his trial failed to take place because Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Bruno Kalemba told the court that government wants to reconstitute the prosecution team.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) is prosecuting Muluzi and his co-accused Lyness Violet Whisky. They are accused of diverting K1.7 billion into his personal accounts when he was in power between 1994 and 2004. 

The case has dragged since Muluzi and Whisky were arrested because, among others, the former was declared unfit for trial on health grounds.

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