The Chief Resident Magistrate’s court in Lilongwe has discharged Rodrick Wiyo and Leah Donga from a K4.3 billion money laundering case involving former Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) Governor Dalitso Kabambe alongside three others.

Kabambe, Henry Mathanga, Wiyo and Donga were arrested last year in connection to a forensic audit report which revealed fraudulent local and foreign payments by the Central Bank.

According to Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Steven Kayuni, the application has been necessitated because current evidence in possession of the State does not show how the two accused persons are connected to the case.

He said: “Perusing through the docket,  it doesn’t indicate the evidence that shows complicit on the part of the two accused persons which we earlier on arrested so that reason it’s only right and proper for the two suspects to be discharged from the matter.”

The court has however denied an application by the defence to have Kabambe and his co-accused Mathanga discharged.

The DPP told the court that the State took time to investigate the matter because it was extensive.

“There were two things, a little bit of a delay in terms of receiving the whole docket and the fact that the investigators had additional accused persons to add on the file, those are the two issues that delayed it,” Kayuni said.

However, defence lawyer Fositino Mayele has expressed discontent over a slow pace at which the State is prosecuting the matter citing it has been over a year since the accused persons were arrested and are yet to be formally charged neither taking plea.

“Especially the delay, you recall we started doing this in end June 2021, we have been  coming to court on three different occasions for directions, now 14 months have passed yet the State keeps coming to court saying they need more time.

That on our part is a clear indication that the State is not ready for this case, if they had arrested these people in June 2021 by now we should have been almost through with the case,” Mayele said.

Mayele disclosed that the defence will not appeal the court’s determination citing that the law is not permitting them because it is an interlocutory application.

According to Kayuni, the State would be adding five more accused persons in the matter.

Magistrate Madalitso Khoswe Chimwaza has given the State the requested 30 days to submit its disclosures and hearing of matter will commence on September 22, 2022.