Mphwiyo not a ‘flight risk’ says lawyer: Malawi gun-shot survivor refused travel to seek medical aid

The former Ministry of finance budget  director Paul Mphwiyo will not evade justice in theft and money laundering case, his lawyer has contended after the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) has  turned down his application to travel to South Africa for medical aid.

Mphwiyo applied to the bureau to be allowed to travel to South Africa for medical aid. In December last year, the bureau allowed him to travel to South Africa for the same purpose.

Two bullets hit Mphwiyo in the mandible and another went through his shoulder to his chest. One bullet was removed in a South African hospital but two others – lodged in his spinal column – will remain inside the 38-year-old for the rest of his life.

His attorney from KD Freeman Lawyers argued that it is highly improbable for the gun-shot survivor to jump bail.

“What we know is that our client has been attending medical appointments in South Africa time and again. In any event, the court stated earlier that the State can always escort our client when he is travelling out of the country,” reads a statement from his lawyers.

“You may also need to know that at the same time ACB authorised our client to travel locally. In short, in the absence of any evidence of intent to jump bail, authorities ought to have been slow in denying one the right to seek medical attention from a practitioner of their own choice”

ACB has refused Mphwiyo’s travel out after his former surety told a court under oath that Mphwiyo had plans to jump bail, a claim shot down by Mphwiyo’s as wishful thinking

ACB deputy director general Reyneck Matemba said they could not afford to “take that risk” to give Mphwiyo a lee-way to jump bail.

The application to discharge Banda was ironically prepared by lawyer Ralph Kasambara who is one of the suspects in the case of attempting to murder Mphwiyo.

Matemba said Mphwiyo may wish to arrange for his doctors to fly into the country.

“We have based our decision on the court’s decision to allow the discharge of the surety,” said Matemba/

Crispin Ernest Banda was allowed by High Court judge Esmie Chombo to be withdrawn as a surety for Mphwiyo’s bail in the theft and money laundering charges amounting to K2.1 billion.

In his application prepared by private practice lawyer Ralph Kasambara, who is one of the suspects in the case of attempting to murder Mphwiyo, Banda told the judge in her chamber that he had information that Mphwiyo was planning to jump bail.

He asked the court to order a refund of his K2 million bail bond which the court granted.

Mphwiyo’s shooting on 13 September 2013 led to the unravelling of the systematic looting of millions of government money dubbed ‘cashgate’,

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