Malawi court drops graft charges against Vice President Chilima

A Malawi judge has dropped corruption charges against Vice President Saulos Chilima. According to Reuters, the judge did so because the Director of Public Prosecutions filed a notice to discontinue. Chilima was arrested in 2022 after the country’s Anti-Corruption Bureau accused him of corruption involving two British companies. President Lazarus Chakwera later stripped the vice president of some of his constitutional duties. Chilima’s party spokesperson told VOA, they were based on an incomplete report and therefore politically motivated. Malawi information Minister Moses Kunkuyu tells VOA’s James Butty, the motion to discontinue the case is rooted in the Malawi constitution, and its merits will be taken up by the legal affairs committee of the Malawi parliament.