Maravi

Saki testifies in Mahtani case

Saki testifies in Mahtani case
By Mwala Kalaluka
Thu 09 Dec. 2010, 04:01 CAT

A WITNESS told the court that he engaged in some untruths to access the letter allegedly authored by the central bank in which he was said to have misled the President over Finance Bank and Rajan Mahtani.

Sakwiba Sikota, a Lusaka lawyer, said this during proceedings on Tuesday in a case where another lawyer John Sangwa and his client former Finance Bank chairman Dr Mahtani are charged with forgery, uttering a false document and fabricating evidence.

In his testimony before Lusaka chief resident magistrate Charles Kafunda, Sikota said he heard about the purportedly forged letter from his client Odysseus Mandenakis, the director of Ody’s Works Limited.

Sikota said Mandenakis told him that Sangwa availed the letter purportedly authored by immediate past deputy governor Dr Denny Kalyalya to him.

Sikota, intrigued about what Mandenakis told him, asked the Ody's boss to set up a meeting with Sangwa.

“I told him that as bait perhaps he could state that in view of the letter, he was now willing to discuss a settlement,” Sikota said.

He said the meeting took place at Mandenakis’ residence on July 25, 2010.
Sikota said during the meeting, he asked Sangwa about the letter and the latter confirmed what Mandenakis said earlier.

Sikota said he then suggested to Sangwa that the letter in question was obviously fake since part of the contents stated that President Banda wanted to somehow acquire the shares in Finance Bank and Zambezi Portland.

“The other aspect was that which stated that I together with my clients misled the President over these issues,” Sikota said. “I pleaded with Mr Sangwa to look at these various aspects and concede that this was a forgery or a fake.”

Sikota said Sangwa remained adamant that he had done his investigations and he was confident the letter was genuine.

Sikota said he only got hold of the said forged letter dated July 12, 2010, about July 27.

During cross-examination by defence lawyer Mumba Kapumpa, Sikota said it was his understanding that the said letter showed that Dr Mahtani had been cleared of all the charges against him.

When asked why he had to set a trap that Mandenakis was willing to settle his disputes with Dr Mahtani in order to get the said letter from Sangwa, Sikota said he had to tell a lie to get to the truth by whatever means.

Asked further why the court should not classify his testimony as little untruths given the position, Sikota said he had now sworn on the Holy Bible to tell the truth.

Sikota said getting the letter from Sangwa required a bit of subtlety.

Labels: COURTS, FINANCE BANK, RAJAN MAHTANI, SAKWIBA SIKOTA

posted by MrK @ 3:23 PM