By our reporter

LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The country’s Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have written foreign embassies, asking them to impose a travel ban on President Peter Mutharika and government officials suspected to have benefited from the K145 million Malawi Police Service scam.

The CSOs, trading under the banner of Human Rights Defenders Coalition, told journalists in Lilongwe on Friday that, since it has been revealed that “Mutharika benefitted from a corrupt scheme”, it would be imperative that the international community should ban him from their countries to show their zero-tolerance position on corruption.

A leaked investigations report from the Anti- Corruption Bureau (ACB) suggests that Mutharika might have benefitted from suspicious transactions between MPS and Pioneer Investments through a MK145 million deposit Zameer Karim of Pioneer Investments made into the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) account whose sole signatory is Mutharika.

“We appeal to the international community to ban Mutharika and other government officials linked to Police-gate from travelling to their countries because they are using our money, which they took illegally,” one of the CSO leaders, Gift Trapence, said.

Billy Mayaya, who read a statement on behalf of other human rights activists, condemned the MPS for unleashing terror on journalists as evidenced by the beating of Zodiak Broadcasting Station reporters Musase Cheyo and Towera Kumwenda who were covering a police raid on vendors in Mzuzu.

Presidential Press Secretary, Mgeme Kalilani, on Sunday said Mutharika’s hands are clean in the matter.

Kalilani said Pioneer Investments merely donated to the party; hence, this does not make the President an accomplice to the alleged corrupt practice.