Judge set July 8 to rule on Muluzi’s bond before travelling to UK for medical
High Court Judge, Justice Edward Twea has set July 8 to rule whether former president Dr Bakili Muluzi sign US$ 12 million bond and have his properties seized or not before he is allowed to travel for a medical checkup in the United Kingdom.
Muluzi – Malawi’s Head of State from 1994 to 2004 – is asked to explain the K1.4 billion ($12 million) which was deposited in his account from Libya and Taiwan when he was President.
Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) sought the court order to impose a bond which Muluzi should accent, of a non-cash amounting to $12 million to ensure he returns from UK.
The graft busting body seized Muluzi’s property which includes 150 vichicles, Keza office complex which he sold to businessman Muhammed Nadhi and his BCA residence. His bank accounts have also been frozen.
“We want Muluzi to sign for a non-cash bond of 12 million (8.6 million euros). We want the whole nation to be in peace that Muluzi will come back,” Alex Nampota director of ACB who is leading the prosecution said.
The former Malawi president was expected to have a health check last week in UK on his slip disc problem which he was operated on in 2006 but was stopped after the Bureau seized his passport.
ACB acted after Chief Immigration Officer Elvis Thodi claimed in a sworn affidavit that Muluzi planned to bolt from the prosecution of the graft charges.
Nampota said the Bureau is not taking any chance “on the possibility that Muluzi might abscond.”.
Muluzi through his lawyers challenged the order describing it as “oppressive”.
The lawyers ask the court to dissolve the order and allow Muluzi to travel and treat the former president as a suspect and not a convict.
The anti-graft body briefly arrested Muluzi in 2006 on 42 counts of corruption, but all the charges, except for the K1.4 billion donor money, were dropped for lack of evidence.
The then ACB director Gustav Kaliwo summoned the former president to the Bureau’s offices in Blantyre where he was slapped with a charge relating to this issue.
Soon after that, Mutharika suspended Kaliwo who later resigned. A few days later, the then Director of Public Prosecutions, Ishmael Wadi, issued a discontinuance certificate. Wadi was thereafter forced to resign.
Government claims that the former Malawi ruler diverted donor money from Taiwan and Libya into his personal, private bank account in Zomba.
However, the Taiwanese and Libyans who had embassies in Malawi when Muluzi was president, were all booted out of the country by Mutharika.
Both the Taiwanese and Libyans were asked by the Mutharika government to testify against Muluzi by, among other things, signing sworn affidavits implicating the former president.
When both the Taiwanese and Libyans refused to do so, Mutharika ordered their expulsion from Malawi.
The lawyers for Muluzi have said the former president does not deny being a rich man, but that he was already a very successful businessman before becoming president.
The government has never been able to show how Muluzi’s substantial personal estate was a result of self-enrichment through corrupt methods.
Muluzi who is yet to make a plea, denies any wrong doing.
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