Maravi

Chiluba is paying back for his acquittal – HH

Chiluba is paying back for his acquittal – HH
By George Chellah
Wed 03 Mar. 2010, 04:00 CAT

UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema yesterday said Professor Muna Ndulo's expert legal opinion on Frederick Chiluba's acquittal confirms that President Rupiah Banda was expecting political favours in return.

Commenting on United States’ Cornell University law Professor Ndulo's opinion on Chiluba's acquittal, Hichilema said the truth of the matter was that the majority Zambians wanted the appeal against Chiluba to be granted.

“And the Presidency categorically refused to allow the judiciary and, of course, through the prosecution, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to proceed with the appeal.

So the President clearly acted against public interest and what Prof Ndulo is basically expressing is another view that probably gave credence to the public opinion at the time,” Hichilema said.

“We all know that President Banda had made a lot of strange pronouncements and now I think we are confirming why he did those pronouncements.

He was expecting political favours in return. And these campaigns we see, these press conferences where the opposition people like ourselves are being ridiculed is in exchange for the refusal by Banda to allow the appeal.

“Everybody knows that Banda sat on the appeal. Prof Ndulo as a legal expert… whether we like it or not, Prof Ndulo is a respected person from the legal profession locally, regionally and internationally. He is an authority of some kind and what he has done is to help the lay people. His view gives a legal analysis.”

Hichilema said it were actions like the ones surrounding the Chiluba appeal, which undermined the fight against corruption.

“It is behaviour like that, it's actions like that. It's acts like what Prof Ndulo has commented about. The fight against corruption is gone under President Rupiah Banda and under the MMD government that fight is gone,” Hichilema said.

“We Zambians who care about the future of this country must regroup. This is not the time to register new political parties. This is the time to consolidate, to work together. You can't ask MMD to wage a fight against corruption. It means it's waging a fight against itself.”

Hichilema said it was undoubted that there was a political deal between President Banda and Chiluba, looking at Prof Ndulo's legal opinion.

“What is going on now is a confirmation of that. The deal was to use the Presidential office to selectively allow or discontinue a case, which obviously from a magistrate…it was only normal that it went to the High Court and if the High Court ruled and didn't handle the matter properly it would have been normal to appeal to the Supreme Court,” Hichilema said.

“If anybody felt that they are innocent why would they stop the appeal process? There is no doubt about that we all know that.”

Hichilema said Prof Ndulo's legal opinion was an indictment on the judiciary.
“There are a lot of good judges and magistrates out there but a few cases like this is definitely denting the image of the judiciary,” Hichilema said.

“I think your paper wrote about a particular case where a citizen went and laid it bare to the Supreme Court bench that they were corrupt, isn't it? So it's an indictment on the judiciary,” Hichilema said. “What we wish to see is a professional judiciary, a reasonably independent judiciary.

If citizens can stand before a bench and say what that individual said, one of the reasons is the examples of cases like those that have been mishandled. Unfortunately, it does dent the image of many judges out there, many good magistrates out there.”

Labels: CHILUBA, HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, MUNA NDULO

posted by MrK @ 7:16 PM