Malawi police arrest ex-Minister for corruption

Police in Malawi have arrested and charged a former minister and senior official of the ruling party, the United Democratic Front, with corruption.

A police spokesman said they had charged Brown Mpinganjira with facilitating the award of contracts to non-existent contractors when he was a minister, which lost the government huge amounts of money.

The former minister's arrest comes a week after police presented a report to Parliament on investigations into the fraud and corruption scandal.

Mr Mpinganjira's lawyer Ralph Kasambara said the arrest of his client was politically motivated since the report had not implicated Mr Mpinganjira directly. A BBC correspondent in Blantyre says the arrest is likely to cause divisions within the United Democratic Front as Mr Mpinganjira enjoys the support of some of its members.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service