Former Malawi Defence Force (MDF) Commander, Henry Odillo, Thursday pleaded not guilty to several charges including money laundering, gross negligence by a public officer and improper payment of public money. He appeared before High Court Judge, Redson Kapindu, in Lilongwe.
According to the first count on the final amended charge sheet, Odillo, his then deputy, Clement Kafuwa, former MDF accountant Nelson Kauwa Banda, former Accountant General David Kandoje and one Ganizani Kuchombo conspired between November 28, 2011 and August 20, 2013 to use public office for the advantage of Banda and Kuchombo trading as Thuso Group.
The five are also being accused of possessing K929.8 million public money, between March and September, 2013, which represented wholly or partly property that had been obtained unlawfully.
Odillo, Kafuwa and Kandoje are further being accused of having R30,000,000 and K929.8 million stolen under their watch “as a result of their gross negligence”.
After the accused pleaded not guilty, the actual trial failed to commence because the defence, led by lawyer Titus Mvalo, had not yet acted on a proposal by the State that some documents which were apparently manufactured by the accused should be admitted by mutual consent.
Mvalo argued that the State’s proposal depends on whether Odillo and his co-accused would acknowledge the documents.
“We will be more comfortable with the documents tendered in the court in the normal way,” Mvalo said.
But Justice Kapindu offered his direction that the defence should look into the said documents and return with their position today, stating that the spirit of advanced disclosure was that time should not be wasted on elements which can be worked on before trial begins.
In an interview after the case had been adjourned, defence lawyer, Kamudoni Nyasulu, said in the prosecutor’s brief which was filed on February 19 last year, the State had submitted that the documents were manufactured by the accused, one to the other.
“So they are documents that each one of them is aware of. And we were thinking that we can agree that those documents should be submitted by mutual consent so that we don’t waste time introducing the documents, giving backgrounds, the usual way of admitting documents.
“So the judge has given them today, to sit down with their clients so that they can look at the documents. They should have already done that,” Nyasulu said.
Kapindu also ruled that he would make a determination on an application by the State that two other related cases should be tried separately once a judgement has been made following an injunction which some accused in the case had obtained.
Odillo and Kafuwa were arrested in May, 2015 on accusations that they arranged a contract to supply military equipment which was never delivered to the MDF. Their co-accused were arrested later.
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