DPP reshuffles cashgate prosecuting team: No seizure of suspects’ property

Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) is reorganising the prosecuting team of the Malawi’s cashgate scandal and the special state prosecutor Kamudoni Nyasulu has been taken out from handling the cases, Nyasa Times understands.

Sources at Ministry of Justice told Nyasa Times that Nyasuslu who was handling the cases with another special prosecutor Enock Chibwana, a former Ombudsman, will be replaced.

Nyasulu’s role was questioned in court recently by former justice minister Ralph Kasambara who wondered if the law allow for a special prosecutor.

Kasambara -who is one of those answering charges of money laundering involving cashgate- questioned the process Nyasulu was appointed arguing that it was not in line with the Public Finance Management Act, Public Procurement Act and Public Audit Act.

Said Kasambara: “I will not support short-cuts in the pretence of special prosecutions.”

Meanwhile, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) will not seize property of Cashgate suspects, according to the bureau’s deputy director Reyneck Matemba.

“We have learnt some bitter lessons where we [ACB] and government have been dragged to court by individuals claiming millions or billions of kwacha in compensation for property damaged, vandalised or deteriorated while in our custody,” Matemba is quoted in The Nation.

“The property which we can restrict in this regard is that property that is the subject of an investigation or prosecution, or is otherwise implicated in such investigation or prosecution.”

According to ACB, due to the unknown duration of Cashgate trials, the bureau feels it is better not to seize property despite the Forfeiture Act giving it mandate.