By Chisomo Phiri
The High Court in Lilongwe on Tuesday dismissed an application by Paul Mphwiyo’s wife, Thandizo, for a stay and setting aside a forfeiture order of a bonded family house in Area 43 in Lilongwe.
In her ruling, Justice Ruth Chinangwa argued that the application for stay of the order of forfeiture lacks merit.
Judge Chinangwa ruled and ordered the forfeiture of the house on March 28, 2024, after Mphwiyo absconded bail on the bonded property.
But through lawyer Khumbo Soko, the wife applied last week to the court to set aside the order, arguing the house did not belong to her husband but it was a matrimonial property for the family.
According to a statement issued by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), the court’s ruling means that the house remains the property of the Malawi Government.
Mphwiyo disappeared around July 2023 after the High Court in Lilongwe was about to hear his defence and later to deliver judgement in his K2.4 billion Cashgate case after it found him with a case to answer.
He disappeared after the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal through which he was demanding that his criminal trial must start all over again after change of a judge.
Mphwiyo, alongside others and before he disappeared, was answering charges ranging from theft by public servant, money laundering to consipirancy to defraud government.
The alleged offences happened under the former President Dr. Joyce Banda’s administration.
