A Malawian businessman of Asian origin on Wednesday escaped a 10 year jail term by paying over K29 million fine imposed on him by the Blantyre Senior Resident Magistrate Court on two counts of Illegal Possession of Foreign Currency contrary to Regulation 25 of the Exchange Control Regulations as read with section 3 of the Exchange Control Act and Illegal Possession of Listed Species contrary to section 86 (1) as read with section 110 A (b) of National Parks and Wildlife Act respectively.
The court heard that the accused Sanjay Yashan of 58 yeara old from Mapanga Traditional Authority (TA) Machinjiri in Blantyre on April 11 2017, at his shop in Limbe and at his house located at Mapanga was found with 14,031 United States Dollars, 2770 South African Rands and 100 British Pounds without permission of either the Minister of Finance or that of the Reserve Bank of Malawi.
Further search by police (Fiscal) also led to discovery of 11 pieces of Processed Ivory weighing 14.8 kilograms without any authority from the Director of National Parks and Wildlife valued at MK 22,792,000.00.
When Yashan was brought before the court on April 13, 2017 he pleaded not guilty to both charges. He was being represented throughout the trial period by Council Chimwemwe Kaluwa of Golden and Law Associates.
The state paraded five witnesses while the accused called for three defence witnesses.
However after full trial, the court found the accused guilty on both counts.
In mitigation; Lawyer representing the accused pleaded with the court to consider the age of the convict saying at 58, he was of age and that the convict suffers from hypertension and diabetes such that a custodial sentence was not necessary.
Passing the sentence, Senior Resident Magistrate Peter Kandulu slapped Sanjay Yashan with K150,000.00 fine in default 14 months imprisonment with hard labour for the first count and K22,792,000.00 fine in default 10 years imprisonment with hard labour for the second count.
The court further ordered that the foreign currency be paid back to the accused upon payment of the two fines.
The accused has since paid both fines and set free.
The cases were jointly prosecuted by Senior Superintendent Christopher Katani (Regional Prosecutions Officer for the Southern Region), Superintendent D.P. Kaputa (former Station Prosecutions Officer for Blantyre now RPO North) and Sub – Inspector Justice Manolo of Blantyre Police Station.