Malawi police re-arrest lawyer Kasambara
Malawi Police have rearrested prominent lawyer and activist Ralph Kasambara came out of Chichiri Prison walls on Wednesday February 15 after spending two nights in the hands of law enforcement and prison authorities.
“As we were relaxing at Ralph’s home, over 30 police officers came to rearrest him, saying procedures were not followed for his release,” Wapona Kita a lawyer in Kasambara’s law firm, Ralph and Arnolds , said.
“We are following up the police motorcade to see where they are heading to, and for what purposes,” he said.
Government went to obtain a remand warrant from Magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwausiwa to have Kasambara be detained.
The lawyer was arrested on Monday after he reported some thugs who wanted to torch his house and office to police. There is no clear charge, but police said they were searching for weapons and other items from his house and office.
Minister of Information, Patricia Kaliati, said Kasambara was arrested for assault, abduction and indecent acts as she claimed that the regime thugs were homosexually raped.
Kasambara’s associates—Arthur Chikankheni, Mayamiko Kadango, Brian Magoya, Patrick Gadama and Ali Kaka—who were arrested with him on Monday, remain freed.
Kasambara, a former Attorney General in the President Bingu wa Mutharika administration, is a fierce critic of the government, asking it to take quick action over the continued strike by junior judicial workers.
“This strike is causing a lot of misery amongst people,” he said. He is also known for representing the poor and those threatened by authorities with legal services.
Kasambara was quoted in the local press last weekend calling for the impeachment of Mutharika, calling the president a ‘tin-pot dictator’ who is behind human rights abuses.
“Malawians must understand that the person they employed as the President of their country and gave him terms and conditions of service as the Constitution has defiled the conditions of service,” he charged, asking Malawians to make use of the two options they have – ask Mutharika to resign or impeach him as ‘he wants to be a dictator’.
Kasambara was picked up alongside other four people and the bail condition ask the suspects to deposit K20,000 each, produce one surety bonded to the sum of K50,000 not cash and report to Southern Region Police every Friday.
