BLANTYRE--The High Court in Lilongwe has resolved that Reserve Bank of Malawi should keep US$184,800 which was confiscated when businessman Ashraf Abdallah El Ali was convicted of attempting to externalize foreign currency, the Sunday Times reported.

In January this year, the Lilongwe Magistrate Court convicted and fined Ali for attempting to take out of the country US$184,800 illegally – it was hidden in his a suitcase - and was fined K500, 000.

The magistrate court had also ordered the Reserve Bank of Malawi to return the currency equivalent of about K50 million at the time.

But High Court judge Chifundo Kachale in his Friday ruling said the sentence and ruling of the magistrate court was "wrong in principle and inadequate."

He ordered the immediate forfeiture of the US$184,800 and fined El Ali K850, 000 for the misdeed.
He had already paid K500, 000 to the lower court and he would then be required to pay K350, 000.
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©2012 The Maravi Post. Reproduction without acknowledgment prohibited.

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