BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-A source at the Malawi High Court has revealed that the MK3.1 billion which Leston Mulli was paid as award for damages that his companies, including Sunrise Pharmaceuticals, suffered in the rioting of July 2011, was a fraud because there was no judgment at the high court awarding him such money.

He said in 2013, High Court judge, the late Joseph Manyungwa awarded Mulli damages amounting to MK560 million after making assessments and finding the MK3.1 billion claim to be too exorbitant and exaggerated.

“Leston Mulli appealed this decision to the High Court but before a ruling was made on that appeal Judge Joseph Manyungwa died. When People’s party lost power to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 2014, Leston Mulli did not wait for judgment to delivered on his appeal but started pressurizing government to pay him his MK3.1 billion damages as though the appeal was successful and yet there was no judgment,” said the source.

The source added that if Mulli had to be given any money as damages, it should have been the MK560 million which was awarded by Judge Manyungwa not the MK3.1 billion because there was NO judgment to that effect.

“The 3.1 billion which Mulli took from government has no basis and it is pure theft of government money. The Attorney General must explain this serious anomaly and breach of government operating code by his office and Leston Mulli” added the source.

Initially government was reluctant to pay Mulli his compensation claim and it is believed that Kalekeni Kaphale, in his ‘first term of office’ as Attorney General refused to award the claim because it was deemed too exorbitant and not equivalent to the actual damages that his companies suffered.

A decision was only made this year to give Mulli the MK3.1 billion for political reasons after it emerged he was among the people that were propagating for the removal of Mutharika as Presidential candidate for DPP.