Police in Malawi are to question former president Bakili Muluzi and the education minister over the murder of a prominent anti-government Muslim cleric two years ago, the chief prosecutor said on Wednesday.
”We want to interrogate Muluzi and a minister to get their information and some clarification which would help us,” said Director of Public Prosecutions Ishmael Wadi.
Wadi said Education Minister Yusuf Mwawa and Muluzi, who stepped down in May after serving two five-year terms as head of state, will be quizzed as ”potential witnesses” to the murder and not as accused persons.
He said two daughters of the murdered cleric, Sheikh Abdul Hamid Bugudad el-Bannah, who are in Zambia for ”security reasons”, will also be questioned by Malawian detectives.
The cleric, who headed the Sunni Muslims’ Supreme Council of Malawi, led street protests in 2002 after publishing a scathing open letter in which he accused Muluzi of condoning corruption.
He was detained by police along with 600 of his followers after riot police thwarted their move to march to the presidential palace. He was beaten up later and died of his injuries.
The Young Democrats, the youth wing of Muluzi’s United Democratic Front and notorious for beating up government critics during his 10-year rule, is suspected of fatally assaulting the cleric.
Eight Young Democrats members were arrested early this month in connection with the murder.
Their arrests came after two senior politicians of the United Democratic Front — a top aide to Muluzi and an ex-lawmaker — were charged in October with the same murder. — Sapa-AFP