Mvula to appeal 30-month sentence
Former Judiciary spokesperson Mlenga Mvula has said he would appeal the 30-month custodial sentence that the High Court of Malawi handed him yesterday for soliciting about K10.7 million bribe from United Methodist Church between 2016 and 2017.
In an interview after the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal Judge Sylvester Kalembera, sitting as a High Court judge, delivered the sentence, Mvula’s lawyer Chancy Gondwe said he received instructions from his client to challenge the court’s decision.
He observed that the sentence was manifestly excessive considering the circumstances of the matter and the mitigating factors which the defence presented for the court’s consideration.
The mitigating factors included that some of the money was returned to the church and Mvula was a first offender.
Gondwe said: “So, we feel that the court did not consider all the mitigating factors, otherwise the court could have also given a lenient sentence or even suspended the sentence.”
Kalembera gave Mvula’s accomplice, the Reverend Daniel Mhone, a suspended sentence with a condition that he should not commit a similar crime in the next two years.
In an interview after the judgement, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) principal legal and prosecutions officer Bernard Mlozowa said the State was satisfied with the sentences.
ACB arrested Mvula alongside Mhone in September 2017 for soliciting bribes purportedly for the Attorney General’s office, High Court of Malawi judges and himself to influence the outcome of a court case between Reverend Maxwell Jawati and the United Methodist Church.
The two were charged with eight counts bordering on obtaining money on false pretence, misuse of public office, forgery and altering false documents.
