BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—The High Court in Blantyre has set 17 may, 2016 as a day to decide whether to discharge former president Bakili Muluzi in a case he together with ex assistant Lyness Whiskey are accused of corruptly obtaining K1.7 billion when he was in office.
The case resumed at the High Court on Thursday morning.
The High Court set Thursday after Anti-Corruption Bureau deputy director Reyneck Matemba who was lead state prosecutor and another prosecutor Chrispin Khunga asked Judge McLean Kamwambe to stand aside from the case.
Kamwambe granted the two the application, a move which prompted the defence team to ask the same court to discharge the case.
On Thursday, one of Muluzi’s lawyers, Thamando Tchokhotho, asked presiding Judge Kamwambe to discharge the accused arguing the state is taking time to identify a lead counsel to replace Matemba who recused himself from the case on personal grounds.
Making his ruling on the proposal, Kamwambe said the court will decide on 17 May, 2016 whether to discharge the accused or not.
During the court session on Thursday, the defence team representing the former president accused the state of abusing the court process.
“We are simply talking about the abuse of the court process. The court has powers to avoid its process from being abused and in this matter as being observed by the court there is sort of abuse that is happening. You will note that the fact that the prosecution has adjourned the matter on several occasions and the reasons that are being given are not coherent,” explained Tchokhotho in an interview with MBC TV monitored by Maravi Post.
Later before the adjournment, lawyer representing the state Chrispin Khunga refused to comment on the matter.