Rupiah will block appeal – Hichilema

Rupiah will block appeal – Hichilema
Written by George Chellah
Tuesday, September 08, 2009 3:30:27 PM

UPND president Hakainde Hichilema yesterday said President Rupiah Banda is compromised on former president Frederick Chiluba's acquittal and it is clear that he will not permit an appeal. And Hichilema challenged Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Chalwe Mchenga to justify his occupation of the office of the DPP.

In an interview, Hichilema said President Banda's actions on Chiluba's acquittal were clear that he would block the appeal.

"You understand that Rupiah Banda is compromised on this matter. There is no question about that. He acted in a manner where he was arm-twisting the Judiciary to make a judgment that he would like to see. In his usual style of wanting to control all the arms of government as he did on the Dora Siliya issue," Hichilema said.

"...Because Rupiah Banda was benefiting from Dora to appeal, he encouraged the appeal. In this particular case he has discouraged the appeal. His behaviour and actions are clear that he will not allow the appeal."

He wondered what was wrong with President Banda allowing the judicial process to take its course on Chiluba's acquittal.

"I would like to appeal to the consciences of the Judiciary to do what's necessary...the independence of the judiciary and fair justice to the people of Zambia. If judges become MMD cadres, Zambians are watching, they will be the final judge," Hichilema said.

"If the appeal was allowed on Dora, what's wrong with this case? Zambians must stop this dictator from pushing his way anyhow, all the time. I ask Zambians to make a clear decision that this is not acceptable. I don't wish to appeal to the corrupt leadership."

He said President Banda must stop using public office to pursue private interests.

"We can cite many examples on these corruption cases where people have appealed. So why is this case not being allowed to follow a normal judicial process?" he asked.

Hichilema said DPP Chalwe Mchenga must come out of being an MMD cadre.

"His conduct is shameful and he is the one Zambians are looking up to as a public officer to check out Rupiah's gluttoness. A DPP worth his sort must act in public interest. I challenge him to justify his occupation of that office," Hichilema said.

"He must not block justice because he is just an individual. Once he is conducting public affairs in that office he must protect public interest. It's all corruption in the judicial process...corruption everywhere."

Last week, Mchenga was quoted in the Times of Zambia as having said the state would not challenge the acquittal of Chiluba because the appeal was unlikely to be successful.

Mchenga said the evidence before court showed that the Zamtrop account from which Chiluba was alleged to have stolen about US $500,000 received money from sources other than the government.

"An appeal should only be made when there is a likelihood of it succeeding. Appealing because of concerns of members of the public without regard to the likelihood of success is actually an abuse of the judicial process," he said.

Mchenga said there was evidence before court that money in excess of US $8.5 million was paid into the Zamtrop account from other sources and Chiluba said some money had been placed into the account on his behalf.

He said from the evidence before court, it was not clear whether the money the accused persons were alleged to have stolen came from the government or other sources.

"To resolve the difficulty, the court relied on the well-established principle of criminal law that where two or more inferences can be drawn from a set of facts, the court must adopt one which is more favourable to an accused person if there is nothing to exclude such an inference," Mchenga said.

He said the inference favourable to Chiluba in this case was that the money drawn was from private sources.

"This being the case, the court had no option but to acquit him because the money he had drawn was not public money," he said.

Mchenga said while public concern could be a basis for instituting criminal investigations, it cannot be the basis for instituting a criminal prosecution or appealing against an acquittal.

And Hichilema said he maintains his statement on donor funding.

"I stand by what I said. I said donors must direct the money to benefit Zambians. Instead of giving money to the treasury where the corruption takes place. Let them fund projects directly because that's how it used to be," said Hichilema.

"For instance, if they wanted to repair Tuta Bridge they would fund Tuta Bridge directly instead of using the budget system. Rupiah is tired, he has the inability to comprehend things.

"We would like donor money not to be abused by this corrupt regime. Donor money is being abused through the budget system."