Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has faulted Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Dr. Joyce Banda’s People’s Party (PP) administrations for failing to prosecute former head of state Dr. Bakili Muluzi.
MCP through its National Publicity Secretary, Ezekiel Peter Ching’oma MP made the sentiments in a statement issued barely days after the High Court in Blantyre dropped all corruption charges against Muluzi.
The decision by the court to drop the charges followed a notice of discontinuance of the case which Director of Public Prosecutions Masauko Chamkakala issued on May 26 2023 to discontinue the matter.
In a statement made available to the Publication, Ching’oma said: “It is unfortunate that the state, in the past three administrations, failed to prosecute Dr. Muluzi for 16 years. This shows that the arrest of Dr. Muluzi was politically motivated. DPP fabricated the charges against Muluzi to torture and silence him.”
Muluzi, 80, was accused of diverting K1.7 billion in donor support to his account when he was the President of Malawi.
He was first arrested in 2006 by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on allegations of diverting US$11 million (K1.7 Billion) to his personal accounts but over the years there has been no progress on the case.
The quasi-religious grouping, Public Affairs Committee (PAC), in 2021 called for discontinuance of the case saying it was draining public resources.
Former ACB director Reyneck Matemba said in 2020 that the case required a political solution because it was not prosecutable.
Muluzi, the co-founder for United Democratic Front (UDF), ruled Malawi from 1994 to 2004 as the first democratically elected president.
