…..The court rebukes DPP Maele for abuse of public office
LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The High Court’s Financial Crimes Division has dismissed an application by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) seeking permission to withdraw criminal proceedings against convicted wildlife trafficker Lin Yunhua, ruling that the application was legally incompetent and amounted to an abuse of court process.
In a ruling delivered on July 13, 2026, Justice Redson Kapindu held that the prosecution had relied on Section 81 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Code, a provision that applies only to subordinate courts and not to proceedings before the High Court.
The judge said the State had invoked the wrong legal procedure in seeking leave to discontinue the prosecution.
Lin Yunhua is facing multiple corruption-related charges arising from events that allegedly occurred while he was on remand at Maula Prison in 2019.
The charges include corrupt practices with public officers, abuse of office and abuse of public office under the Corrupt Practices Act.
Yunhua has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and the trial commenced in May this year, with two Malawi Prisons Service officers already having testified.
According to the charge sheet, Yunhua is accused of offering MK30 million to the Officer-in-Charge of Maula Prison, Aaron Ganyavu Kaunda, to influence the judicial officer handling his earlier criminal case so that he would receive a lighter sentence.
In a separate count, he is accused of offering to complete the construction of Kaunda’s house in exchange for similar assistance.
Justice Kapindu described attempts to bribe judicial officers as among the gravest forms of corruption, saying such conduct threatens the independence of the judiciary and undermines public confidence in the administration of justice.
However, he stressed that despite the seriousness of the allegations, Yunhua remains presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
The ACB informed the court that it had received instructions from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Fostino Maele, to withdraw the prosecution, allowing the alleged misconduct by prison officers connected to the case to be addressed through administrative disciplinary processes.
Maele however sought an order discharging Yunhua from the case.
The court questioned the State’s reasoning, observing that the prison officers were not accused persons in the proceedings but merely prosecution witnesses.
But Justice Kapindu observed that there was no convincing explanation why disciplinary action against prison officers could not proceed independently while the criminal case against Yunhua continued.
Kapindu further noted that the Constitution and the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Code already give DPP Maele the authority to discontinue criminal proceedings without seeking leave from the High Court.
If Maele wished to terminate the case, the judge said, the proper course was to exercise those constitutional powers rather than ask the court to make the decision on the prosecution’s behalf.
The ruling also drew comparisons with an earlier decision involving Finance Minister Joseph Mwanamvekha, where the court discussed the DPP’s powers to discontinue prosecutions.
Justice Kapindu said the present matter was different because the State had not claimed there was insufficient evidence against Yunhua, but instead sought withdrawal for reasons unrelated to the charges before the court.
The judge therefore dismissed the application in its entirety, describing it as an unnecessary waste of judicial resources and an abuse of court process.
The dismissal means the criminal trial against Lin Yunhua will proceed unless the DPP Maele formally exercises his constitutional power to discontinue the prosecution.
The ruling comes barely a week after Malawi Law Society (MLS) rebuked the embattled Maele for conflict of interest on matter as Yunhua was his client before appointment as DPP early this year.
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