LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The Malawi Prison Service (MPS) on Friday defied the Principal Resident Magistrate Court order to produce a Chinese wildlife crime and money laundering convict Yuanhua Lin to appear before the court in Lilongwe for hearing of corruption related charges being leveled againstc him.
Lin who is serving his 14 year jail sentence at Domasi prison after being moved from Maula and Mzimba prisons respectively is among other new charges accused of bribing Maula prison officials where he was being held first to win favors.
The charges emanates from reports that he was being allowed to come out of court and conduct his businesses including visiting his livestock farm in Lumbazi, Lilongwe.
Principal Resident Magistrate Michongwe on November 5 issued an order addressing it to the Officer In Charge for Domasi Prison to release the the convict and bring him to Lilongwe for the cases hearing.
However, prosecution team comprises of lawyers from the Ant Corruption Bureau and Lin’s defense team waited for the suspect’s arrival to commerce the court hearing until mid day only to be communicated by the prison authorities that they failed to bring Lin due to logistical challenges .
Peter Sambani, the principal legal and prosecution officer at ACB told reporters that, “We were set as the state to commerce the case hoping that the suspect would be hear following the court order but we have been communicated by the prison officials that they faced logistical challenges to bring him here.”
The prison authorities made the communication at eleventh hour yestarday despite being served with the court order on November 5 .
Sambani disclosed that case hearing has since been shifted to December 11, 2024.
Meanwhile, the state has opened seven additional charges committed by Lin while in prison.
Several efforts to speak to prison authorities on the matter proved futile.
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