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The High Court in Blantyre on Monday granted bail to the ruling UDF deputy director of research Humphrey Mvula who was arrested on Friday evening on allegations of fraud and corruption.
Judge John Katsala granted bail on K50,000 ($463) (not cash) and that Mvula produce two sureties of K50,000 each, also not cash.
Former cabinet ministers Dumbo Lemani and Friday Jumbe presented themselves as Mvula’s sureties to the court.
One of the three lawyers hired by Mvula, Viva Nyimba, told journalists that another condition of the bail is that Mvula should be reporting to Blantyre Police once in every fortnight. The other lawyers are John-Gift Mwakhwawa and Maxwell Tembo.
Nyimba said Mvula had not yet been charged by the time the court granted him bail at around 4PM.
The state was not represented in the bail application and Nyimba said all state lawyers in Blantyre were reported to have gone to Lilongwe to attend a seminar.
“The state was supposed to bring Mvula to court and ask the court that they need to keep him in custody longer than 48 hours but they did not do that. We feel that is abuse of human rights,” said Nyimba.
He also said the defence will be asking the court in a separate application to rule that the actions by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) are unlawful because his appointment has not yet been confirmed by the Public Appointments Committee of Parliament.
Lemani and his UDF aides stormed the court premises after Mvula was granted bail to sign for surety papers.
Lemani admitted that the arrest of Mvula has exposed a big rift between president Bingu wa Mutharika and the UDF as a party.
“In fact it is not just a rift, its a gully. Some people are trying to hide this, but it is there,” Lemani told journalists at the court.
Mvula was still admitted at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre when the court granted him bail.
Nyimba said the state may charge Mvula at a later stage.
But DPP Ishmael Wadi said he was not aware that Mvula was granted bail by the High Court.
“We wrote a letter requesting for an adjournment to Wednesday because the lawyers are here in Lilongwe for a seminar which ends tomorrow,” said Wadi.
He said the state has hired Clement Mwala, a lawyer in private practice, to represent the state and has prepared three charges against Mvula.
Wadi said the state has managed to collect the information they wanted and Mwala was working on the charges.
He said Mvula will be charged with failing to disclose interest, abuse of office and could not remember the last charge.
“Now with Mvula out on bail, I guess we should just go to court because the charges are ready,” said Wadi.
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