Ten opposition leaders and businessmen detained last week in Malawi in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate President Bingu wa Mutharika have been released due to lack of evidence, police said on Monday.
”Police have not found sufficient evidence to prosecute them, but those truly connected to the case shall be arrested and face the law,” police spokesperson Willie Mwaluka told Agence France-Presse.
Among those released at the weekend was Kamlepo Kalua, leader of the small opposition Malawi Democratic Party (MDP) and an outspoken critic of Mutharika.
Kalua said he was told by police that there was an ”order from above” that they were to be set free. There were no conditions attached to their release and he did not sign a statement, he said.
The 10 opposition leaders and businessmen were released following investigations into an alleged plot hatched by Vice-President Cassim Chilumpha to assassinate Mutharika.
Chilumpha, who had been sacked by Mutharika in February but was reinstated following a court ruling, was arrested on April 29 and charged with treason and conspiracy to commit murder.
He is due to stand trial with two alleged accomplices, Yusuf Matumula, a prominent businessman, and Rashid Nembo, both of whom are close allies of former president Bakili Muluzi.
Mutharika, who was handpicked as Muluzi’s successor in 2004, had a falling-out with the former president and has left the ruling party to form his own political group.
Chilumpha has been at loggerheads with the president since he criticised the arrests of two deputies suspected of being behind a drive to impeach the head of state in Parliament last year. The motion was withdrawn in January. — Sapa-AFP