Ex-dictator’s ally named Malawi chief justice

Malawi’s president has appointed a former justice minister under late dictator Hastings Kamuzu Banda as the country’s new chief justice, his office said today.

Lovemore Munlo, 57, who until April was registrar of the United Nations’ Special Court for Sierra Leone, will replace Leonard Unyolo who retires at the end of this month, the statement from President Bingu wa Mutharika’s office said.

Judges in Malawi retire at the age of 65, but Unyolo, due to retire next year, "has opted to go early," said high court registrar Sylvester Kalembera.

Munlo, who has also served as registrar of the UN Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, rose through the ranks in the Malawian justice ministry before Banda appointed him minister of justice and attorney general in the early 1990s.

Banda, who ruled the country with an iron fist for three decades until he lost the country’s first democratic elections in 1994, later appointed Munlo secretary general of the once-powerful Malawi Congress Party.

"It will be quite a challenging assignment and I feel honoured to come back and work among my own people. It will be much more meaningful than working outside the country," Munlo said.