Maravi

Kunda is the black sheep of lawyers – Sondashi

Kunda is the black sheep of lawyers – Sondashi
Written by Patson Chilemba
Friday, September 25, 2009 6:13:40 AM

LUSAKA lawyer Ludwig Sondashi has described Vice-President George Kunda's defence of former president Frederick Chiluba as nonsense. Addressing the press yesterday, Sondashi said Vice-President Kunda's statement that it would amount to professional misconduct for Mchenga to appeal against Chiluba's acquittal because the case had no merit was shocking.

"He [Kunda] is one of the black sheep in the law profession. He is not fit to be a lawyer, and I think he would have been fit to be a plumber. He should have been a plumber because I don't understand what he is talking about," Sondashi said.

"The Vice-President knows that appealing is testing the rule of law. If someone appeals, it means he is acting legally because you are allowing the upper court which has eminent judges to decide on the matter. And that is when people can feel that this case has been properly done."

Sondashi asked Vice-President Kunda to keep quiet if he had nothing to say.

"This is the problem. Kunda has been promoted because of bootlicking," he said.

Sondashi called on Zambians to come together and appeal because there was a way of challenging the discretion of the DPP. He cited the case of Anisminic vs Foreign Compensation Commission.

"You see this case is an authority which goes to allow a person to challenge the discretion which has been exercised wrongly, like what the DPP has done. The Constitution gives him power to decide whether to appeal or not. So this discretion is there. But it doesn't mean that the discretion cannot be challenged. It can be challenged in one of the following ways. Number one, when a person with that discretion has exercised it unreasonably or he has exercised it illegally," Sondashi said.

"Or he has taken into account matters which he should not take into account. Like in this case, Mchenga took into account political considerations and he has been influenced by fear. So we can prove that this decision was moved by fear of unknown. And once we prove this, the judges will be able to rule that there should be an appeal in the case, and the fact that LAZ has said that there were grounds upon which that judgment should have been appealed, makes my argument to be confirmed that Mchenga acted unreasonably."

Sondashi reiterated that judges were afraid of President Banda and were finding ways of acquitting those he favoured.

He said thus far, education minister Dora Siliya and Chiluba had been cleared using the same terminology.

Sondashi said it was clear that Chiluba embezzled public funds as evidenced by the London judgment against him as well as the conviction of his wife, Regina for receiving stolen property from him.

He said even a person with little intelligence would not find it difficult to understand that Chiluba stole from the public.

"I agree with what I said earlier that the Judiciary is being compromised. It is either the Judiciary is just scared because the President is in favour of Chiluba, because this can happen in a state where the President enjoys excessive presidential powers, the Judiciary cannot stand. And secondly, the President can just tell the judge to say 'look, do something about this', because the President is President," said Sondashi. "So once the President coughs, the Legislature and the Judiciary cannot flourish. This is what is happening in this country. So it is a lesson to all of us."

Sondashi also asked LAZ to pull up its socks because it was no longer the same association it used to be.

Sondashi said even if LAZ had stated its position over Chiluba's acquittal, the decision came too late.

"What were they doing? They should have given that opinion before Mchenga withdrew the appeal. LAZ should have stated that, but they came out late. Nevertheless, even if they have come out late, they have decided according to what most of us lawyers think," said Sondashi.

"But of course, LAZ must come out in the open when issues like this are being debated. It's true that this LAZ is not the same LAZ that we used to know earlier on, and therefore they must pull up their socks."

Labels: CHILUBA, GEORGE KUNDA, LUDWIG SONDASHI

posted by MrK @ 5:14 AM