Malawi cleric released on bail

2010-08-24 08:47

Blantyre - A Malawian court has granted bail to a cleric arrested last week and charged with sedition, as thousands of church members demonstrated outside the high court in the northern city of Mzuzu.

A court official said that Levi Nyondo, general secretary of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP), was freed on Monday after being ordered by the court to surrender all travel documents and report to police every week.

Prosecutors have not laid out details of the sedition charge.

But Nyondo, a frequent critic of the administration of President Bingu wa Mutharika, was reportedly arrested after saying his church would support Vice President Joyce Banda for president in 2014 and not rival candidate Peter Mutharika, the president's brother.

The cleric, whose arrest has sent political temperatures rising, told supporters gathered outside the court that the church would never "allow police to intimidate us... as long as we notice wrong things in society, we shall always speak out".

There has been tension in the sleepy city of Mzuzu since the cleric's arrest on Friday. He was initially denied bail in a Saturday court appearance.

Scores of armed police patrolled the one-street city on Monday, as parishioners sang anti-government songs denouncing the arrest.

Two opposition critics were last year convicted of sedition but have since been released after their case was reviewed by the high court.

- AFP