{"id":7330,"date":"2012-02-20T11:30:39","date_gmt":"2012-02-20T11:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/?p=7330"},"modified":"2012-02-20T11:30:39","modified_gmt":"2012-02-20T11:30:39","slug":"malawi-anger-at-jailing-of-mutharika-critic-kasambara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/2012\/02\/20\/malawi-anger-at-jailing-of-mutharika-critic-kasambara\/","title":{"rendered":"Malawi anger at jailing of Mutharika critic Kasambara"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>An outspoken critic of Malawi’s President Bingu wa Mutharika is being held illegally and should be released, his lawyers have said.<\/p>\n

Ralph Kasambara, who served as attorney general, was first arrested on Monday after reporting to the police an alleged petrol-bombing of his office.<\/p>\n

He was released on bail on Wednesday but then re-arrested hours later.<\/p>\n

Mr Kasambara was quoted in a weekend newspaper as saying the president was dictatorial and should resign.<\/p>\n

President Mutharika won a resounding second term in office in presidential elections in May 2009, but has since faced criticism over his handling of the economy.
\n‘Flouting the law’<\/p>\n

Mr Kasambara’s lawyers said on Thursday they went to Chichiri maximum security prison in the commercial city of Blantyre, but the wardens refused to release Mr Kasambara – despite a court order.<\/p>\n

UK-based rights group Amnesty International also demanded his immediate release.
\nContinue reading the main story
\n\u201cStart Quote<\/p>\n

Bingu must resign forthwith for his incompetence and failure to defend democracy\u201d<\/p>\n

Ralph Kasambara Lawyer<\/p>\n

“The rearrest of Ralph Kasambara indicates the Malawian authorities are willing blatantly to flout the law when it comes to dissenting voices,” Africa deputy programme director, Noel Kututwa, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The BBC’s Raphael Tenthani in Blantyre says Mr Kasambara – who served as Mr Mutharika’s first attorney general when he came to power in 2004 – has been one of the president’s most acerbic critics since falling out with him.<\/p>\n

“Bingu must resign forthwith for his incompetence and failure to defend democracy,” Mr Kasambara told journalists from Chichiri prison, repeating remarks he made in Malawi’s The Weekend Nation newspaper.<\/p>\n

Mr Kasambara said that his guards apprehended on Monday three of five men who he alleged were hired to petrol bomb his office.<\/p>\n

But when Mr Kasambara took them to the police station, he was arrested instead.<\/p>\n

The UK and other donors cut aid to Malawi in 2010, amid criticism of its economic policies and its attitude to the opposition and journalists.<\/p>\n

Last July, at least 19 people were shot dead by police during anti-government protests over the worsening economy.<\/p>\n

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, with an estimated 75% of the population living on less than $1 (60p) a day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An outspoken critic of Malawi’s President Bingu wa Mutharika is being held illegally and should be released, his lawyers have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[1600,1601,258,1602],"class_list":["post-7330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","tag-jailed","tag-kasambara","tag-malawi","tag-ralph"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}