Chinese national Lin Yunhua, a convicted wildlife trafficker and money launderer, has been released from Dedza Prison less than a week after the High Court rejected his bail application and ordered him to remain in custody.
The dramatic reversal follows the State’s decision to discontinue the corruption case against him.
A release order issued by the High Court Financial Crimes Division on 23 September 2026 directs Dedza Prison to release Lin after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) filed a Certificate of Discontinuance.
The order states that the court, having considered the certificate, “hereby orders the immediate release of the accused person.”
It further directs the prison to release Lin “unless being held for other lawful reasons.”
The speed of the turnaround is striking.
On 16 September, Justice Redson Kapindu dismissed Lin’s application for bail and ordered him to remain on remand. The judge said Lin remained a serious flight risk and that the State’s review of the prosecution did not amount to sufficient change in circumstances to justify his release.
“The Applicant’s application for release from detention on bail herein must be and is hereby dismissed,” Kapindu ruled.
“The Applicant shall remain in custody on remand under the Malawi Prisons Service as before, pending the further conduct and/or lawful determination of the criminal proceedings herein.”
The ruling was particularly critical of the State’s position.
Prosecutors had previously described Lin as a flight risk but later supported his release under stringent conditions. Kapindu questioned why the State could simultaneously maintain that Lin was a flight risk and support his release.
“If they [the State] still believe that he is a flight risk,” the judge said, “then the State should have clearly explained the justification for, in one breath, saying that the accused person is a flight risk, and in the same breath saying he should be released on bail.”
The judge also questioned a proposal for Lin to finance costs associated with police monitoring.
“He goes as far as proposing and the State agrees to this, that he bears the transportation costs associated with police involvement as well as paying necessary allowances for the officers responsible,” Kapindu observed.
The court warned that such an arrangement risked creating unequal treatment between wealthy and poorer accused persons.
Now, the same man the court had ordered to remain behind bars has been released—not because the court granted him bail, but because the State has ended the prosecution itself.
Lin was facing allegations that he offered K30 million and promised to complete a house for a senior prison official to influence the handling of his earlier wildlife case. He denies the allegations.
The corruption case arose after Lin’s conduct while serving a 14-year sentence imposed in 2021 for wildlife crimes and money laundering came under scrutiny.
He was later pardoned by former president Lazarus Chakwera in 2025, but remained in custody over the separate corruption proceedings.
