Blantyre, Malawi - Malawi incarcerated ex-Attorney General in hospital. Malawi's detained former Attorney General Ralph Kasambara was Friday night admitted at Blantyre's Mwaiwathu Private Hospital for a heart condition. 'He was brought here in a wheel-chair with a heart condition but he was in a stable condition,' said a physician on duty at the private hospital. Kasambara's lawyer Wapona Kita said: 'We have just arrived at Mwaiwathu with Ralph Kasambara. According to doctors, he has developed a serious cardiac condition and needs constant observation.'

Kita, on a posting on the social networking site Facebook, said: 'He is out of prison hands but still in police hands and has an escort of 30 police officers.'

Kasambara was arrested on Monday after his associates apprehended a gang of alleged government-sponsored thugs sent to petrol bomb his offices in Blantyre. He has since been charged with assault.

High Court judge Godfrey Mwase, on Friday afternoon granted the outspoken lawyer bail. This is the second bail order for Kasambara after the first one granted by the Blantyre Chief Resident Magistrates Court was ignored by police and prison authorities.

According to police, the bail order could not be respected because it was obtained irregularly since courts in Malawi are currently on strike.

But Zomba High Court clerks, marshals and stenographers delivered the release order to the prison. 

Kasambara was President Bingu wa Mutharika's first Attorney General when he came to power in 2004. The two soon fell out and the outspoken lawyer became the 77-year-old economist-turned-politician's most acerbic critic.

His arrest came fast on the heels of a publication of hard-hitting interviews in the press where he called Mutharika 'a tin-pot dictator' who must resign or be impeached for incompetence and disregard for the Constitution.

President Mutharika's abrasive style of governance has alienated him to almost all sections of the society, including religious and civil society leaders, leading to the unprecedented July 20 anti-government demonstrations where thousands of Malawians in all major cities and towns took to the streets. At least 20 people were shot dead by police during those demonstrations.

Western multi-lateral donor agencies and governments have also joined the fray by suspending all development aid to the southern African country.

Pana 18/02/2012