Malawi ex-president in ‘bad shape’
Malawi former president Dr Bakili Muluzi who was due to travel to the United Kingdom for a medical check-up last week but failed when the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) seized his passport and air tickets, effectively stopping him from any travel, is reported to be “in bad shape.”
Family members and officials of the UDF party which Muluzi heads have described the present health status of the former president as “serious”.
Muluzi’s personal physician could not comment on the matter.
However a top aide to Muluzi, Humphrey Mvula said there is cause for concern on the life of the former president who ruled Malawi from 1994 to 2004.
“As far as we are concerned, we are more concerned in the health and life of Dr Muluzi,” Mvula told VOA.
“The illness that he is suffering from is quite critical because I think it involves his back, his discs and he has had several operations on it. This was after he sustained during the 2004 political campaign.
“So what he has in his back-side is that are plates that are holding together his spine. I think it’s long overdue now he should have gone for an operation. It has been delayed,” said Mvula.
He said the state’s move to block him from going overseas for treatment has worsened his condition.
“He now has serious difficulties in walking. He cannot sit in one place for a long time. He had initial schedules [for operation] last week and what we are meant to understand is that subject to what the doctor was going to prescribe, he was either going in for a straight operation or something was going to happen to actually correct the current malfunctioning spine,” said Mvula.
The UDF director of research said Muluzi’s request to travel to UK to seek medical treatment was presented to court through two applications before Justice Maclean Kamwambe and Justice Healy Potani, pointing out that ACB did not object to the request.
“We are more interested in the life and health of the former president. I think it is also in the interest of those that are prosecuting him for the case that the person should be healthy [to stand trial] and that the person should be alive.
“We are saddened and indeed we are in an extreme sense very saddened and we feel sorry about it. We cannot say much because the matters are subjudice at the present moment,” said Mvula.
ACB applied to the high court on Thursday to seize former president Bakili Muluzi’s property and asked for a $11-million bond if he were allowed to leave for a medical check-up in London.
Mvula said Muluzi is not refusing to execute the bond but suspected the state obtained the order not in good faith.
“The area of subsequent legal action of requiring a bond and withdrawing a passport were obtained ex parte [by a judge, without all parties present]. I’m sure if good intentions were demonstrated through the defense and the prosecution sitting down and talking about it, probably the lawyers or anybody else would have looked at it differently,” he said.
Mvula said Muluzi cannot run away from prosecution and indeed persecution.
“He has never wanted to run away and he will not run away. He is not a small person like some of us may be,” he said.
Mvula said it as a former president, Muluzi when he leaves Malawi he is always accompanied by government security detail.
“Even if he had wanted to run away he would not hide,” he said describing the move by the state as a “shocker out of the blues”.
“As a party, we have said that look, if indeed there was an anonymous caller, it should have been treated with a lot of contempt because that anonymous caller should have been so ignorant of what happens when a former president is traveling,” Mvula said.
ACB boss Alex Nampota explained that Muluzi’s properties would not be forfeited if he returns after his medical trip.
“If he comes back, then there is no problem. But in the event he doesn’t come back, all the properties which are a subject of a seizure warrant which we obtained get vested in the government and get sold to make good the $13 million dollars,” said Nampota.
Muluzi is facing graft charges of K1.4 billion which he has been investigated from 2006 but he denies any wrong doing.
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