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Govt won’t appeal acquittal – Kunda

Govt won’t appeal acquittal – Kunda
Written by Janet Chileshe
Wednesday, September 23, 2009 4:26:40 AM

VICE-President George Kunda has charged that it will amount to professional misconduct for Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Chalwe Mchenga to appeal against Frederick Chiluba's acquittal because the case has no merit.

Featuring on a live programme on Kasama's Radio Mano yesterday, Vice-President Kunda said the government would not appeal former president Chiluba's acquittal. Vice-President Kunda said Mchenga had decided not to appeal because the case was of no merit.

"On Chiluba, it would be unprofessional, in fact, professional misconduct for the Director of Public Prosecutions to appeal knowing well that the case is frivolous and of no merit whatsoever for him to go ahead and lodge an appeal," Vice-President Kunda said. "So he exercises his judgment. If he feels that this case has no merit whatsoever, he does not have to appeal. Whether there is public pressure or public demand, that is irrelevant. He is a professional person and he has to look at the judgment. According to what I know, he went through the judgment and studied it and was of the firm view that the magistrate who tried the case was on firm ground when he acquitted Dr Chiluba. So there will be no appeal according to the DPP. He has not appealed and has given reasons why he is not appealing."

Vice-President Kunda said Chiluba should not be convicted on the basis of suspicion.

"If the evidence adduced by the prosecution has created some doubts, however strong the suspicion may be, that person must be acquitted. A person cannot be convicted on the basis of suspicion. He must be convicted on the basis of reliable evidence presented [in court]. But if the evidence is shaky, it has loopholes, that person should be acquitted," he said.

He said it would be wrong for the court to convict someone on political grounds.

"It would be wrong for the courts to convict somebody on political considerations just because some people were making a lot of noise or they don't like that person. So that is not justice. The justice we want in Zambia is where the courts operate independently and our courts shall operate independently," Vice-President Kunda said.

He said the Judiciary was independent in Zambia and that the government was proud of the work being done by the learned members of the bench.

He said the judgment in Chiluba’s corruption case was correct.

"The Judiciary in Zambia is very independent. We are proud of Judiciary. The learned men on the bench, they analyse their cases.... according to the evidence available," he said. "In this case, they arrived at a judgment without interference from any quarter, which they thought was justified by the evidence which was presented before the court.

"From his Lordship the Chief Justice, Supreme Court judges, High Court judges, magistrates and even local courts, we don't interference with how they work. What we want in Zambia is justice regardless of the status of somebody. If he is suspected to have committed an offence, he is taken to court and the court will hear the evidence from both sides, from prosecution and defence side."

Vice-President Kunda claimed that some people were not happy with the acquittal of Chiluba because of personal hatred for him.

"Of course, some people are not happy about the acquittal of Dr Chiluba for various reasons, most of them are political or out of perhaps hatred or political differences. Now if a judgment is passed, it is the Prerogative of Director of Public prosecutions to exercise his prerogative whether to appeal or not to appeal," he said.

Vice-President Kunda said it was unfortunate that some people were making noise over the acquittal of Chiluba.

"For example, when Mr Sata was acquitted of theft of motor vehicles, the DPP never appealed. He was cleared. Up to date, he has been cleared," he said.

On media regulation, Vice-President Kunda said the government wanted to control the media in order to phase out unprofessional conduct by some journalists in the country.

Vice-President Kunda said quacks had infiltrated the journalism profession.

"But what is happening in the media now is that certain people have infiltrated the media. They are not properly trained and mixing with you [the presenter] purporting to be journalists. These are quacks who should not practice journalism. These people should be regulated by a code of ethics like lawyers," he said. "There are many journalists denting the image of the journalism profession, they are writing insults. They are churning out hatred where they want one tribe or community to rise against another."

He accused some media houses of inciting hatred and violence in their writing.

"They want the Catholic Church to rise against the government. They want government to rise against the Catholic Church. They want government to rise against Pentecostal churches and propagating of seditious messages, anti-government messages, which are meant to incite violence and things like that. So it is these things that we are responding to," Vice-President Kunda.

He said the media had options whether to be regulated or not.

"The media can do a private members Bill, take it to Parliament where they will give some legal authority, for instance to MECOZ [Media Ethics Council of Zambia] and this can be their own creation," Vice-President Kunda said. "The kind of regulation we are talking about exists in other countries. In Botswana, they passed a media Act recently. Media laws exist in various countries. But one thing is common in these media laws. They all acknowledge self-regulation of the media, except that a legal framework is provided within which the media should operate. And the idea behind this kind of regulation is to ensure that there is professionalism, that there are ethical standards, that there is a code of conduct, which can regulate the media.

Labels: CHALWE MCHENGA, CHILUBA, DPP, GEORGE KUNDA

posted by MrK @ 3:14 AM