K1.3bn extortion case suffers delay

The Blantyre Senior Resident Magistrate’s Court will have to set a new date for the criminal case involving former Minister of Homeland Security Ezekiel Ching’oma and two senior police officers accused of extortion. The two others are former deputy Inspector General of Police responsible for operations Ackis Muwanga and former crime Superintendent Laudon Nthinda. The three are suspected to have, with an intention to extort, accused businesspersons Yasir Haji Yousuf, Muhammad Imran Moosa and Imran Abdul Rasheed of money-laundering and allegedly abused their authority to obtain directly for themselves K1.3 billion.

The matter was supposed to come before the court yesterday for a ruling on an application by the defence to transfer the case from Blantyre to Lilongwe. The court was also expected to make a ruling on the State’s application to have the case committed to the High Court of Malawi. But the court was informed that one of the defence lawyers Khumbo Soko, who is representing Ching’oma, was in Lilongwe attending to other matters; hence, the matter could not proceed.

According to Ministry of Justice spokesperson Frank Namangale, the State has been told to file notices of hearing, pending a new date. Ching’oma, who was added to the case on January 28, was formally charged with attempted extortion by threat, abuse of public office and money-laundering, all suspected to have been committed on June 20 2025, when he was Minister of Homeland Security. Muwanga and Nthinda were granted bail on November 18 2025 by the magistrate’s court, five days after they pleaded not guilty to the charges.

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They were arrested on November 9 2025. In an earlier hearing, State lawyer Dzinkondianthu Malunda told the court that Muwanga and Nthinda’s arrests emanated from a complaint lodged on November 7 2025.

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