Mpinganjira case committed to High Court in Malawi judges’ bribery case

The Blantyre  Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday committed to the High Court the corruption-related case against business tycoon Thom Mpinganjira.

The committal came after the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB)  director Reyneck Matemba asked the court to commit the case to the High Court, saying the bureau is ready for trial.

Chief Resident Magistrate Simeon Mdeza has since accepted the application and committed the case to High Court.

Mdeza  said will be preparing a report of the proceedings for the High Court to work on.

One of Mpinganjira’s lawyers, Patrice Nkhono, said the defence had no problem with the case being committed to the High Court, since the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Code gives power to commit cases to the High Court.

According to Nkhono, ACB is supposed to submit documents to the defense on the application.

He said: “We haven’t received the disclosures yet from the Anti-Corruption Bureau, but we expect we will be receiving those ones in a little while. And once we get those we can begin to make preparation and be ready for the trial”.

Mpinganjira is accused of attempting to bribe a panel of Constitutional Court Judges who presided over the presidential election case to rule in favour of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

ACB arrested Mpinganjira in January this year after Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda complained to the bureau that someone wanted to bridge the five judges who heard the presidential election case as a constitutional referral.

The banker, who is currently on bail, is answering charges related to attempting to induce High Court Judge Mike Tembo and Healey Potani to exercise their functions corruptly by accepting K100 million for that purpose, according to ACB.

Mpinganjira denies any wrong doing.