President Lazarus Chakwera has come under scrutiny for pardoning two Chinese convicted of wildlife trafficking with Natural Resources Justice Network demanding a reversal of the decision to bolster Malawi’s conservation efforts.
The network’s board chairperson the Reverend Macbowman Mulagah, in a statement dated July 5 2025, said the pardoning of Lin Yunhua and his wife Qin Hua Zhang, who led a wildlife trafficking syndicate that operated across southern Africa, set a bad precedent that environmental criminals can negotiate execution of laws, undermined public trust and legal deterrence.
“It negates the courageous effort that led to reputable convictions in 2021, undermines the National Parks and Wildlife Act and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species obligations, weakens anti-corruption safeguards and exposes our flora and fauna to renewed threats,” reads the statement.
The network, a consortium of 45 civil society organisations in Malawi, called on the government to publicise pardon committee reports to ensure transparency and curb executive overreach.
Zhang was sentenced to 11 years in 2020 while Lin received a 14-year sentence in 2021 after being found with elephant tusks, hippopotamus teeth and rhino horns.
Lin is currently on remand as he is facing corruption charges while Zhang is believed to have left the country after her pardon, according to The Telegraph newspaper of England.
In April this year, The Nation reported how Malawi Prison Service kept under wraps details of 21 inmates that the President pardoned as part of Easter celebrations while in May this year human rights activists also demanded reforms in the country’s presidential pardon process to ensure transparency and fairness.
Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation executive director Michael Kaiyatsa told The Nation there was need for a legal obligation to publish the list of individuals granted pardons, including the rationale for each decision.
Meanwhile, the President yesterday pardoned 37 inmates as part of Malawi’s 61st Independence Anniversary Celebration.
Ministry of Homeland Security Principal Secretary Steven Kayuni said the inmates released met requirements of the Guidelines for the Granting of Pardon to Convicted Prisoners and demonstrated good behavioural reform while serving their sentences.
He said the considerations for pardon excluded persons with relapsed criminal behaviour or recidivism, those convicted of murder, manslaughter, arson, armed robbery, robbery with violence, burglary, rape, defilement, and offences against persons with albinism and persons with disabilities.
Centre for Human Rights Education, Advice and Assistance (Chreaa) executive director Victor Chagunyuka Mhango has faulted the offence-based pardoning, saying everyone who has demonstrated reform deserves a second chance.
In an interview yesterday, he said the exercise has excluded inmates who have excelled in studies and selected to public universities as such represent the very essence of rehabilitation and transformation that the criminal justice system should promote.
Said Mhango: “The pardon process must be guided by principles of fairness and justice. Selective pardoning based on the type of offence risks undermining the spirit of reintegration.
“As a society, we must recognise that all individuals, regardless of the offence, deserve a second chance when they have demonstrated genuine reform.”
Presidential pardons of inmates have often come under scrutiny and faulted for freeing some deemed to be related to the ruling elites.
Malawi Prison facilities have a holding capacity of 8 000 people but are currently housing 16 000 inmates.
