Maravi

Zukas warns of public reaction against acquittal

Zukas warns of public reaction against acquittal
Written by Patson Chilemba
Friday, September 25, 2009 6:11:20 AM

VETERAN politician Simon Zukas has warned that the public will mobilise itself and react against the misapplication of justice and political interference over former president Frederick Chiluba. And Zukas thanked works and supply minister Mike Mulongoti for clearing people's doubts that there was strong political interference in Chiluba's acquittal.

In an interview, Zukas said the court process had not been completed over Chiluba's acquittal, saying the unfinished business should be allowed to finish.

"The public will mobilise itself soon or later and react against the misapplication of justice or the pushing in a political element in the process of justice just because he is a former president," Zukas said last Tuesday.

On works and supply minister Mike Mulongoti's statement that it would have been costly to jail Chiluba, Zukas said many people raised several questions over the acquittal but he was glad that Mulongoti had confirmed what really transpired.

"Firstly, I would say thanks to Mike Mulongoti. Thanks for bringing us up to date on the Chiluba acquittal by revealing that there was a strong political element in it. I would thank Mulongoti for giving the game away. Many of us had suspected this, but I am grateful to have it confirmed now. This is the nearest we have got so far to the smoking gun. You know what I mean by smoking gun? Yes, well you know smoking gun is something that you see when someone has shot somebody. Then this is very good evidence," Zukas said. "And I think we should be grateful to Mulongoti, he has come clean, even though I don't agree with his sentiment. It's good to have an element of transparency."

Asked if the country was going anywhere on the fight against Chiluba's corruption especially with the conduct from the government, Zukas responded: "We are going somewhere, but unfortunately so far it has been going down, and we need to listen to the people to start going up."

Zukas said money was stolen and Zambians should demand it back, saying the government should not drag its feet over the matter.

"The first thing is to proceed and register the London judgment. You know there was a judgment in London against Chiluba, a very big sum of money and that requires registering in the court. And even though they haven't gone ahead, even though they blocked the appeal, we must push them to proceed with the registration of the London judgment," he said.

Asked on the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ)'s position that Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Chalwe Mchenga should have appealed against Chiluba's acquittal and where this left the DPP, Zukas asked Mchenga to consider his position.

He said the Constitution gave Mchenga a lot of independence from the Executive.

"If he is being pushed in any way, to save his honour, he must consider his position. LAZ is a respected body. It's not only LAZ, many lawyers that I have spoken to have said that there was sufficient ground in the magistrate's verdict to warrant an appeal. Now that the appeal in fact started taking place and was then forced to be withdrawn, it should be reinstated," Zukas said. "I don't know the legal niceties..whether time to appeal lapsed, but there should be a way where we should go to higher courts of justice."

Zukas said he did not accept President Rupiah Banda and Mulongoti's view that the public had accepted Chiluba's acquittal.

He said most people were in fact suspicious of the verdict.

"You see let's look back, there was a process of reinstating or rehabilitating Chiluba. Remember in the sitting arrangements that took place during public occasions? Who was behind that? This didn't just happen out of the blue. There was someone behind it, and it can only be government. You can't just go and sit anywhere in a public occasion. Someone places everyone," Zukas said. "And that is where it started and we should have suspected from then that politics was being mixed with justice. Now there are many aspects of Mulongoti's statement. If he says that not everyone hates Chiluba, it's not a question of hate. It doesn't even come into it. We want justice and we want money belonging to the people to be given back.

"Honourable Mulongoti takes a simplistic view, saying that some of the money in the Zamtrop account belonged to Chiluba. Well if that is so, why didn't Chiluba go into the witness box and stand up to make not unsworn statement and object to cross examination? The magistrate had no right to give too much weight to it because it was made from a statement, not from a witness. So, Mulongoti is trying to justify the acquittal on very weak grounds."

On Mulongoti's statement that people who got houses for K10,000 did not hate Chiluba, Zukas said the people were given bribes for which they could support Chiluba.

He said what the Zambian people wanted was a proper system of justice, without politics to apply to those who stole including a president.

"It may be [assertions that Cabinet secured Chiluba's acquittal], we don't know. But Mike is a Cabinet minister and he can't be speaking out of turn here. I know him quite well and he is a responsible man. So he wouldn't have made the statements he made in Kasama without having discussed it with higher authority," Zukas said. "Whether it was a Cabinet decision, we will only know when a Cabinet minister reveals historically."

Featuring on Kasama's Radio Mano last Thursday, Mulongoti said it would have been costly to jail Chiluba.

Labels: CHILUBA, ZUKAS

posted by MrK @ 5:12 AM