Pika Manondo bail ruling Monday
The High Court in Lilongwe has reserved ruling on the bail application of Pika Manondo, one of the suspects in the attempted murder of Ministry of Finance budget director Paul Mphwiyo, to Monday next week.
Manado has been in custody since November 8 2013 and has been remanded at Kasungu Prison even before he applied for bail.
Lawyer Onward Mtupila who stood in for Manondo’s legal counsel John Gift Mwakhwawa is currently in London, said Justice Ivy Kamanga was busy with other Cash-gate late related cases.
“The court will pass the ruling on Monday at 8:30am,” Mtupila told Nyasa Times after the court session which took place in the late afternoon.
He argued that other suspects who were charged with a similar offence of attempted murder had been granted bail, among them former Justice Minister Ralph Kasambara, Dauka Manondo, Robert Kadzuwa and Macdonald Kumwembe.
Manondo, according to his lawyers, would not abscond bail when granted because he had handed himself over to police upon hearing that he was a wanted man.
But Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Bruno Kalemba objected to the release on bail of Manondo, arguing that he could not be trusted to remain in the country for trial when he had fled the country just a day after Mphwiyo was shot.
Manondo recently told Nyasa Times that he will reveal how some powerful people were able to sidestep Integrated Financial Management Information System (Ifmis) internal controls to loot billions of public money.
He also threatened to disclose beneficiaries of the Capital Hill looting to investigators of the matter.
