Muluzi Dodges Court -Case Adjourned To Monday

By Austin Kakande

Former President Bakili Muluzi  failed to show up in court today (friday) to  defend himself in the on going MK 1.7 billion case.

Muluzi was expected to enter plea on today on the case in which the Anti corruption Bureau is accusing him of diverting MK 1.7 billion from donors into his personal account.

However came Friday Morning, Muluzi was no where near the court a thing which forced the ACB to ask the court to re-arrest him.

ACB director Alex Nampota argued in the court that it was an offence for one to fail to appear in the court for no reason at all.

But one of Muluzi’s lawyers Jai Banda counter argued that his client’s failure to show up in the court was something that was beyond his control as it involved forex shortage which Muluzi had no control of.

Banda then asked the court to extend Muluzi’s stay in South Africa .

When the court reconvened in the afternoon, presiding judge, Justice Maclean Kamwambe continued to hear arguments from both sides.

Nampota continued to argue that Muluzi was only playing delaying tactics and advised Kamwambe to be watching him closely.

In his part, Jai Banda assured the court that his client would be in the country either Friday evening or Saturday and asked the Judge to adjourn the case to Monday.

In his ruling, Kamwambe adjourned the case to Monday while advising the Muluzi party to put its house in order.

In an interview Jai Banda said he was delighted that the court was able to examine both arguments and come up with the judgment that had given his client enough time.

“We are more than sure that Dr. Muluzi would be in the country this evening or tomorrow morning. But as of now we are happy that the court has arrived to this judgment,” he said

Muluzi was expected to attend court hearing on 3rd September in relation to the donor money in which the former Malawi leader is accused of diverting into his personal account.

Reports over the last weekend, indicated that Muluzi failed to fly back home because he was unable to clear hospital bills due to foreign exchange problems.

Muluzi’s son Atupele, was quoted that his father’s continued stay in South Africa was due to forex shortage.

“There was shortage of forex and eventually he failed to pay for his medical bills. Once that is done, my father is coming back any day,” said Atupele.

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Posted by malawi voice on Sep 3 2010. Filed under LATEST NEWS, POLITICS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry