Kasambara wants Judge Kachale to remove himself in money laundering case
Former minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Ralph Kasambara who is facing money laundering charges is asking High Court judge Chifundo Kachale to remove himself from presiding the case.
Kasambara has written a letter addressed to the registrar of the High Court Lilongwe Registry, dated April 9 2015 copied to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), saying DPP Mary Kachale cannot prosecute a matter before her own husband without offending the rules of natural justice.
The letter reads in part: “justice of the matter would require that your Lordship recuse yourself from hearing this matter that is being handled by the Director of Public Prosecutions who happens to be your wife. It is trite law that justice should not only be done, but seen to be done.”
Justice Kachale has since asked Kasambara to “to submit a properly prepared application for the State to respond on the same.”
He said Kasambara’s allegations should be supported by evidence in affidavits before he makes a determination on April 29.
In his ruling on a similar application in a case involving former minister of Finance Friday Jumbe and two others, Kachale said throughout his judicial career, his wife, Mary Kachale, had served in the office of the DPP apart from a brief stint as chief legal aid advocate.
Said the judge: “As a matter of prudence and principle, my court has never handled a case in which she represented the State or anybody as legal aid advocate for that matter.
“In this era of gender equality, it is quite surprising to find someone seeking the kind of restrictions that are being proposed by this application on a couple whose professional careers happen to straddle different sides of the criminal justice system.”
The State is being represented by hired prosecutor Enock Chibwana and Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) deputy director general Reyneck Matemba.
Kasambara, Pika Manondo and businessperson Oswald Lutepo are answering on money laundering involving K785 million and obtaining money by false pretence.
In count one, Kasambara, Lutepo and Manondo have been charged with conspiracy to Section 35 (i) (d) of the Money Laundering Act.
Count four has Lutepo, Manondo then Kasambara and lawyer Wapona Kita trading as Ralph & Arnolds Associates charged with money laundering involving K55 million.
The charge for count three reads: “Raphael Kasambara, Oswald Lutepo and Pika Manondo between 26 July and August 2013 at Standard Bank Ginnery Corner Branch in the city of Blantyre, acting in concert and furtherance of a common unlawful purpose, each or the others or all of them had in their possession proceeds of crime, namely seven hundred eighty five million one hundred and five thousand kwacha (K785 105 000.00) which they knew or had reason to believe represented in a whole or in part directly or indirectly money stolen or unlawfully obtained.”
The other accused persons are Fletcher Kaizo and civil servant Roosevelt Ndovi.
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Is Kasambara the only lawyer that can manipulate Malawian laws? why only him creating judicial turmoil that the whole nation can bow down before him?, he must know that he can cheat, kill and threaten sometimes but not all the times.Justice will be brought to him one day and he will regret living educated salvage life.God is watching from a distance untill he watches from nose and mouth.
mai inu tafika kumapeto ankhani asatitayise nkhani uyu, akuwona kuti simukumpatsa mpata alowa nkuona akuti muleke afuna apeze waziphuphu mnzake, tiyenayeni akalowe basi. mbava izi, kumaoneka ngati ophunzira ogwira ntchito koma muli mbava. komagula magalimoto ndalama zokuba, zisiyana chani ndi wosauka koma wodya zake? no hide u deserve unyolo! mai gamulani nkhani and massive osonyengerera angakuipisireni mbiri.
Law is the stupid profession where facts and truth are distorted by perceptions as such apa palibe khani did you stole the money no then case closed but by look of things at last these kasambaras will get compesated as there names have been put in disrepute as they claim all the times as Billy kaunda said and i quote ” kodi wanyerea apa ndani the person question will say i dont know but kodi lawyer wanzeru ndi ndani muona 50 akunena ine ine ine “so i think we should now start using logic when doing our judicial cases…..i rest ma case
palibe zimenezo kasambala
mulandu upitirire basi
inu mukuyimira bwanji mulandu wa cashgate inu muli mukuyimbidwa mlandu womwewo
inu mukanadzichotsa kaye wosayimiranso mlandu
zashulushana basi
judge kachale go on and conclude the case
Mr ndovi was charged with theft by public servant
and money laundering and
unlawful possession of foreign currency. When he
was arrested on 30th sept
2013, we the state want to see the state producing
credible evidence(audit
evidence) provided by either the national audit
office or office of the
auditor general or the central internal audit or the
forensic auditors
….the properties he has are of his business with his
wife
The evidence that is required on this case among
others would be ..the one
who approved the documents that were used to
prepare the fraudulent
payments, the three senior persons who did the
first, second and third
approvals in the IFMIS system, who printed the
payments vouchers abd
voucher list, who printed the cheques from the
system, who signed them at
the department of aac general, who prepared the
dispatch list and who
collected it or them, which bank did he use to
deposit those cheques, who
confirmed the cheque.
Therefore by fast saying ndovi had acquired a plot
in area 25, aplot at
chigumula in bt, he bought motor vehicles
registration number so and so
without telling the nation where he had stolen the
money and how he had
stolen it will have no meaning in the casen
In the case of negligence this time the state should
line up all the seven
signatories to the five gvt bank accounts, for a fair
trial all the seven
signatories are well known that they signed
cheques which amounted to
24billion. Therefore nobody should be left behind
or be hidden as has been
the tendency of the state. The cheques were signed
two yrs ago but the
state just arrested this yr david kandoje just to save
their face bowing
down from pressure from outside and parliament
Kasambara Is One Of the pple who drafted the laws of malawi hence he knws weaknes of these laws thats y he is playing around till he will b a free man.
Kasambala is right. Akazi akumva kukoma ku chipinda amunanso akumva kukoma ku chipinda. Pali chilingamo pamenepa. Most of the judicials are Atumbuka. How many Kamangas are there? Just to mention one. Give a count. I TOLD YOU BEFORE THAT JUDICIAL IN MALAWI IS CORRUPT. Chikopa, khani ya laptop inatha bwanj? Ziiiiiiiiiii. Zautsilu. Courts in Malwi have lost respect.
If it is a matter of case law why di the government not hire outside lawyers to deal with this case? I smell a rat if you asked me. A government that is hell-bent to prosecute in any which way possible. I wonder when this corrupt clueless DPP government will start the investigation of the swindled MK92 billion.
Kasambala is right on natural justice thing. But from on set the judge,dpp and Kasambala knew this was a no no in legal circles and waited this long to accomplish their agenda. Wake up people Atcheya beat the system and you want to say this dpp can beat Kasambala at his on game!!!
These cashgate cases should have been presided by outside judges not Malawian ones. All Malawian judges or lawyers are one way or another connected or linked to these cases, In other words there is a web of too much conflicts of interests throughout the Malawia judiciary starting from the attorney general, the dpp, kasambara himself, other lawyers, etc. In any western court this would not have been allowed.
It is too late now to start all over again!!! What a joke out judiciary is!!
Kodi ka Kasambala ndi kachiyani?To hell with you chindere chakufikapo.
Apa ndiye kasambara sadzaupezanso mpumulo tandigwireni tandigwireni nditembenuzeni nditembenuzeni…
Fight the case not the Judge. Period!!!!!
it’s not whether we like kasambara or not but surely husband wa dpp can’t preside over ma criminal cases.
He should be sent ku commercial court forthwith.
This is a straight forward matter. The registrar should have sorted this out
Kasambara must start himself to recuse from all cash gate cases that he is one of the accused and is also defending other suspects on the same. Kumanyamba watchotsa chisoso cha maso mwako usanachotse chi log cha maso mwa nzako!
boza ili a kasambala kukhumba waka kuchedweska nkhani apa!!
Kasambara is right.The judge should recuse himself as i read from the Lincoln Lawyer that the husband and the half part preside over the same case even though Chifundo is putting some gender issue not related to the case.
Why is he requesting this when the case is at an advanced stage? These are two professionals working for two independent Departments. Then in same vein Government should hire independent lawyers for cases involving Kasambala as most of the junior judges/lawyers were his students. The rules of natural justice are also being impinged upon. Kasambala should also not defend cashgate suspects as he is also a suspect in similar cases. The legal flatenity must seriously look at such unfortunate scenarios. Otherwise we are wasting resources for cases that have no direction. Please bring Stanbrok or a Daniel must come to conclude the cases.
Ada, Kasambara Raphael, mwayiopera patalitu? U know Chifundo is no nonsense judge and you are attempting to avoid him. Simunakanika kale kuti muchotse ma prosecutor koyamba paja. Lero mukulira chokuwanso pakudzera mu kalata kuti judge achoke? So u want to tell me that Kachale shall never preside a criminal case merely bcoz his wife is DPP? Think twice, aphunzitsi anga!
Ine Ralph Kasambara amandinyansa!
Had it that we are using umunthu to judge this case – it would be gone the first day of the court appearance, “munatenga ndalama? that would be the question and the answer would be yes. The rest would be either abweze kapena amangidwe easy.
Here instead we are talking about the wife, the friend, the work, the DPP and many other corners, in English we say “buying time”.