State witnesses have finished testifying in a K186 million fraud and money laundering case involving former Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) Chief Executive Officer Collins Magalasi alongside three others.
The winding up of the prosecution case follows testimony rendered by last state witness – police investigator Ephraim Phiri who gave his testimony on Tuesday before High Court Judge Patrick Chirwa.
The former Mera boss is answering the 18 charges alongside Bright Mbewe, Patrick Maulidi and Dorothy Shonga Nkhoma.
In an interview, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Steven Kayuni said what remains is for the State to file final submissions on whether the accused persons have a case to answer or not within the next 21 days.
He said: “We believe we proved all the 18 charges that are before court and it’s up to the honourable court to make its decision, we have closed our case on this one.
21 days is what the court has granted us that we have to file submissions and that means that 21 days from now the honourable court will set a date on for it to see whether there is a case to answer or not.”
On its part, the defense through one of its lawyers Enock Chibwana said the defense has managed to demonstrate to the court some loopholes on the charges levelled against the accused persons.
“It’s not an easy matter, it’s not a straightforward matter but we are very hopeful that through cross examination the defense have managed to show the court some loopholes and we only hope that through submissions, the court will be able to come to a fair conclusion of the matter,” Chibwana said.
In total, the State has paraded 7 witnesses who include those from Mera including a company that manufactures cloths – Mapeto David Whitehead and Sons.
In the matter, the State alleges that the four accused persons – between August 2019 and July 2020, by deceit, namely, inducing the Internal Procurement and Disposal Committee for Mera to approve procurement of various items whose total payment value was K186 539, 425 from Vink Enterprises.
