The High Court in Zomba has sustained a decision of Chief Resident Magistrate Paul Chiotcha to acquit former minister of Agriculture George Chaponda in a case related to the purchase of maize from Zambia.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in 2018 charged Chaponda
with perjury, influencing a public officer to misuse his position and
illegal possession of foreign currency before Chiotcha ruled that the
politician had no case to answer in relation to all the three counts.
Chiotcha said the state failed to provide enough evidence on the
matter. But ACB presented six grounds for the appeal before High Court
judge Redson Kapindu.
In his ruling Monday, Kapindu said there was no merit in the appeal
by the ACB. The judge further said the grounds of appeal were not valid
and lacked substantial evidence that the lower court erred in its
judgement.
He also said the permit to hold foreign currency which ACB questioned
to be suspicious was legally given to Chaponda by then Minister of
Finance Goodall Gondwe who is one of the authorised persons to issue
such permits.
Chaponda’s lawyer, Tamando Chokhotho welcomed the ruling which he
said was not surprising considering that ACB’s appeal was not properly
filed.
“The fact is that my client was acquitted at a point where the court
was to determine whether he had a case to answer or not and at that time
he had not testified or called any defence witnesses. The fact that the
acquittal was made at that point shows how deficient the evidence
against Dr Chaponda was. From the word go, there was no merit in this
appeal,” Chokhotho.
One of ACB’s lawyers, Anafi Likwanya, said the graft-busting body will accept the court’s verdict.
“As a legal institution, we respect courts’ judgements. In a case,
you are always prepared for both outcomes, whether to win or to lose. We
have learnt few lessons from this case to ensure we are conducting
forensic investigations when handling cases of this nature,” Likwanya
said.
After he the High Court’s judgement, Chaponda said the case had damaged his reputation as a politician.
He, however, said he was happy that he was finally a free man and that the case has made him stronger in his political career.
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