Mpinganjira goes for plea bargain: Court revokes bail
Business tycoon Thom Mpinganjira has asked the High Court in Blantyre for a plea bargaining arrangement to charges the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) levelled against him in a case in which he is being accused of attempting to bribe Constitutional Court judges.
His lawyer Patrice Nkhono made the application on Thursday afternoon before the court continues to hear the case.
Plea-bargaining is a process which occurs in relation to criminal offences whereby the accused agrees to plead guilty to a lesser charge thus dispensing with the need to go through the whole trial process to prove their guilt.
Mpinganjira is answering charges related to attempting to induce High Court judges Mike Tembo and Healey Potani to exercise their functions corruptly by offering them K100 million.
He is also being accused of attempting to induce a public officer to abuse his office by attempting to persuade Tembo and Potani to accept the bribe and rule the election case in favour of former president Peter Mutharika and the Malawi Electoral Commission who were the respondents in the case.
The business magnet pleaded not guilty to all charges.
But with the plea bargaining, Mpinganjira is set to accept some offences and therefore not waste court’s time. This may work in his favour to get leniency.
Meamwhile, the High Court Judge Dorothy Degabrielle has directed that Mpinganjira be remanded to Chichiri Prison following the pplication for a plea bargaining .
Court has adjourned the matter to next week.
Good move. There is no way u can win a case when your accusers are judges. Guilty or not might as well crack a deal and get a lesser sentence than go toe to toe with these referees. We all know that eve in football it’s pointless to argue with a referee after he has given a red card to you whether you were in the wrong or not. So, bravo mr Mpinganjira. U will see the light of day in a few years.
Colleagues: my worry is not his arrest; but how many times has he done this. i am sure this was not the first time. Justice just been raped through money. This is shameful.
Interesting. This is why Jesus asked them to stone that lady if they have never commited any crime. Nobody I mean nobody did that. Some of you here are equally corrupt. Ever bribed Police Officers, etc.? Polani moto its life time mistake. Things do happen to all of us. Ndatha ine wanu Dodolido
But he did the most shameful thing of a man of his caribre to do.He has all what life needs and yet he wanted us to languish under that rotten corrupt government just for his selfish ends. These are that kind of the die hard cadets. Surely he must pay with minimum linience after all he knew his case was already done based on the evidnce that he knew he would only push in vain. Yes there should be linience for people who have committed crimes koma nanga ma judge akanachita zomwe amafunazo kukanankhala bwanji pa Malawipoo? how many peopl… Read more »
Jean Ansah utoona zomwe uchita iwezo..wangowononga ndikuthawa..kanyimbi weniweni iwe..asaa!!
He needs to be in jail for at least 10 years more., Awononga dziko lathi awa. Kuba too much.
The chickens have finally come to roost! The DPP gurus went to town accusing the Judges of having been corrupted by Simbi! When Thom was arrested the DPP supporters said the Judges were wrongly accusing him. Now that Thom has decided to enter a plea bargain…meaning he has accepted that something was wrong and he has admitted guilt…we now can easily conclude that the DPP system was corrupt to the CORE! Here was a system that not only was corrupt but was bent on accumulating too much wealth and power for one tribe! DPP regime treated all other Malawians as… Read more »
Bastard lelo kuuvomera mlandu? kaseveni basi inu simumadziwa kuti ukuswa lamulo? ife timaesa ndiwe ozindikila tikati kuphuzila ttilakwitsa. Idiot mlomwe
we want to hear what happened as malawians. si amakana.
Thanks to Anadikat FMB for building amodern cell u really helped your colleague