JAILED WILDLIFE GANG BOSS WHO WALKED IN AND OUT OF PRISON OFFERED PRISON BOSS MK30 MILLION, COMPLETION OF HIS HOUSE – COURT RECORDS

Court records show that Lin YunHua offered 30 million kwacha to Maula Prison Officer-in-Charge, plus the completion of his house to help him bribe a judge and name senior prison officials who Lin “corruptly” sought their favour to be leaving prison illegally.

Lin was pictured by a surveillance team at Biwi Triangle in Lilongwe on a business routine.

GOLDEN MATONGA AND JULIUS MBEŴE 

Details of the forthcoming bribery case against convicted illegal wildlife products kingpin Lin YunHua include a 30-million-Kwacha bribe offer to the most senior officer at Maula Prison to get his help in an attempt to bribe Judge Violet Chipao who was presiding over his wildlife and money laundering trial.

The court documents, sourced by the Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ), do not show whether 51-year-old Lin (also named Lin Yun Hua) found a way to approach the judge outside the Officer-in-Charge but alleges he attempted to bribe Aaron Ganyavu Kaunda–the Officer-in-Charge of Maula Prison–by offering cash and the completion of a residential construction project in exchange for leniency in his judicial proceedings. 

The charges also include counts concerning offenses Lin regularly leaving the prison illegally while serving his 14-year sentence for trafficking wildlife products and money laundering.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) formally named officers at Maula Prison who Lin ‘corruptly’ influenced to facilitate his illegal visits outside the prison for business. It names in separate counts two Station Officers at Maula Prison, Geoffrey Tembo and Peter Kalagho plus Senior Assistant General Duties Officer Ernest Nkolongo all to have been corruptly influenced by Lin to allow him to go outside prison.

The charges do not indicate specifically whether Lin offered any monetary bribes to the officers or not. As previously revealed by the PIJ, Lin would be allowed to stay at his farm and do business in the town which PIJ exposed last year. The pictures and footage of the officers traveling with Lin to his farm and on business errands remain online but the prison authorities have been reluctant to explain to the public what disciplinary measures they took against the errant officers.

The news of the offer of a bribe to the prison chief himself would heighten the fears that those outings, too–which prison authorities initially claimed were visits to a hospital for treatment– potentially, were fuelled by bribes too.

The revelations come as Lin and his associates push for his release from prison through a presidential pardon citing, again, poor health. Pardons conferred by the president are a privilege reserved for inmates with good behavior and civil society groups working in the environmental justice sector have argued Lin’s record hardly makes him qualified for such a privilege.  

Formal charges

Lin’s lawyers have previously dismissed the allegations of bribery attempts as hearsay but on Friday, ACB formally charged the Chinese national with eight counts of offenses under the Corrupt Practices Act, including corrupt practices with public officers and abuse of public office.

According to the charge sheet, the bribery offer took place between 2019 and 2023, while Lin served a 14-year sentence for wildlife and money laundering offenses.

“Lin Yun Hua, in the year 2019, while on remand at Maula Prison, in the city of Lilongwe, the Republic of Malawi, corruptly offered money in the sum of MK30,000,000.00 and the completion of the construction of Aaron Ganyavu Kaunda’s house in Area 49, Lilongwe, for the benefit of Aaron Ganyavu Kaunda, a public officer by virtue of his position as an officer in charge for Maula Prison, as an inducement for the said Aaron Ganyavu Kaunda to engage Her Worship Chipao, as she was then, who was the judicial officer presiding over his case, criminal case number 797 of 2019, for the judicial officer to give Lin Yun Hua a lesser sentence upon conviction,” reads the particulars of Count TWO of the charges.

One of the curious details in the court documents includes an allegation that Lin influenced Peter Kalagho, the Station officer at Maula Prison to allow him to go to Kanengo illegally to buy seeds for his farm at the prison.

“LIN YUNHUA, being a prisoner serving a 14-year sentence on wildlife and money laundering charges at Maula Prison, in the year 2022 persuaded Geoffrey Tembo, a public officer by virtue of his position as the Station officer for Maula Prison, to abuse his public office for the advantage of LIN YUNHUA, by allowing LIN YUNHUA to go outside the Maula prison to go to Kanengo in the city of Lilongwe to buy himself agriculture seeds for LIN YUNHUA’s garden at Maula prison,” further reads the charges.

Another count cites that Lin also influenced, Nkolongo, the Senior Assistant General Duties officer to misuse his position by allowing Lin to leave the Prison to go to a Biwi garage, his home in Area 9 and Kanengo. 

The Malawi Prisons Services insisted as late as in the last PIJ investigation on Lin seeking a presidential pardon that he never left the prison illegally. 

“He has never gone outside prison illegally,”  National Prisons spokesperson Steven Meke said to PIJ. 

The charges dismiss any notion, once propagated by Maula Prison, that Lin’s visits did not break any law or were medical visits.

The charges came just hours after PIJ published its investigation on Lin’s pursuit for a presidential pardon. The investigation is based on evidence of Lin’s representatives engaging with the politicians behind the plot to grant the convict a pardon. 

Documents gathered by PIJ, among others, include a letter, dated 7th May 2024, from Lin’s legal representatives, Mbulo Attorneys addressed to the Minister of Homeland Security Ken Zikhale Ng’oma, requesting a presidential pardon on behalf of the president. 

One of the politicians involved in the attempts to grant Lin a pardon, a former Member of Parliament and former cabinet minister has also been seen visiting Lin in prison including at Mzimba Prison.  (Lin is currently at Domasi Prison after being transferred from Mzimba Prison). 

According to the sources, the objective of the politician’s visit was to obtain Lin’s signature for pardon documents. PIJ could not independently confirm the purpose of the visit and hence is not naming the politician in question.

This article was produced by the Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ), an independent centre for investigative journalism. PIJ is committed to professional and ethical journalism.