Lutepo’s wife, daughter risk arrest: DPP asks cashgate chief suspect to seal ‘deal’

Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Mary Kachale has asked a chief suspect in Malawi’s “Cashgate” corruption scandal, Oswald Lutepo through his lawyer Oswald Mtupila on a deal to record statement as a State witness to implicate former president Joyce Banda or risk having his wife and daughter arrested.

According to Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) sources, the DPP letter has been copied to Attorney General Kelekeni Kaphale and ACB.

The top prosecutor has warned Lutepo that he risks having his wife Gertrude and daughter Wongani arrested and charged for corruption as they are directors of his cashgate tainted companies International Procurement Services (IPS) and O and G construction.

Lutepo has been told that any statement he makes can also be used against him in court.

He has been seeking for a “plea bargain” in exchange for no custodial sentence.

ACB senior public relations officer Egrita Ndala has refused to discuss “operational issues” in the media.

Chancellor College law lecturer Dr. Mwiza Nkhata warned that while the law allows pre-trial bargaining, justice cannot be fully served when accused persons only return the money they stole after striking deals.

“Despite the law allowing pre-trial bargaining, it’s also not automatic that every person who asks for a deal should be allowed. The gravity and severity of the crime determines [the action taken].

“The other issue is, the K20 million of 2010 is not the same as the K20 million of 2014…and government should also strive to get the other benefits of proceeds of crime and ensure that generally justice is done and not just accept that someone wants to return the money he [or she] is accused to have stolen,” said Nkhata.

Lutepo was arrested in November last year for money laundering after he allegedly pocketed $6 million  from government coffers through ghost companies which did not provide any services to the state.

He is also charged with perjury after sending a letter to the Attorney General claiming he was threatened and told not to implicate Banda in the “Cashgate” allegations, the biggest financial scandal in the history of the small southern African country.

“Cashgate” erupted after an audit ordered by former president Banda found that about K20 billion in state funds had been looted by officials in less than six months last year.

The scandal led international donors to suspend aid to Malawi, where half of its 15 million people live below the poverty line.

In his letter, which was also addressed to Western embassies, Lutepo claimed he was threatened and told to “implicate” former justice minister Ralph Kasambara in the shooting of budget director and corruption whistleblower Paul Mphwiyo last year, the incident which sparked “Cashgate”.

New president Peter Mutharika has vowed to get to the “truth” of the crisis, which is said to have originated in 2005 when his late brother was the country’s leader.

Banda, formerly vice-president to Bingu wa Mutharika who has been exonerated by British backed corruption audit carried out by Baker Tilly, became president after the sudden death of Bingu in 2012.

She was defeated in a hotly-contested presidential election in May.

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