Two former high-ranking officials at the Malawian Ministry of Information, Henry Mussa and Gideon Munthali, will remain on remand at Maula prison after Magistrate Court in Lilongwe denied them bail on Monday afternoon.
Seventy years old Mussa, who is a former Minister of Information and member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and Munthali, a former director at the ministry, are facing two charges of theft by public servant and abuse of office.
They were arrested at the weekend and taken to court on Monday in the capital, Lilongwe.
They were charged with the theft of 10 computers and three power generators during their tenure at the ministry last year.
The computers and generators, a donation from the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) in 2019, were meant for the Malawi News Agency.
The duo both denied any wrongdoing.
Magistrate Viva Nyimba denied the two suspects bail after the state argued that they would jeopardise investigations.
Police were given one more week to conclude investigations and arraign the suspects in court on 21 September.
Police said they recovered one of the 10 stolen computers at Mr Munthali’s house and one of the three generators at Mr Mussa’s house.
Prosecutors alleged that Munthali delivered one generator each to Mzuzu and Blantyre Regional Information offices, he never delivered the 10 computers and one generator.
