It was wrong to bury K2.1bn - witness

It was wrong to bury K2.1bn - witness
By Maluba Jere
Sat 21 Jan. 2012, 19:50 CAT

A WITNESS yesterday testified that Austin Liato was not entitled to keep huge sums of money at his farm but at the bank.

Evans Biemba, 40 who used to work at Liato's farm but is currently staying at Lilayi Police College, told principal resident magistrate Aridah Chulu in cross-examination that he did not agree that the K2.1 billion buried at the former labour minister's farm was concealed to keep it away from thieves.

He said he was not familiar with the Laws of Zambia and that he did not have any bank account but insisted that money is supposed to be taken to the bank and not buried underground.

This is in a matter where Liato is charged with possession of property suspected to be proceeds of crime contrary to Section 71(1) of the Forfeiture of Proceeds of Crime Act number 19 of 2010 of the Laws of Zambia.

It is alleged that Liato on November 24, 2011, in Lusaka, possessed and concealed money at his farm number L/Mpamba/44 Mwembeshi amounting to K2.1 billion reasonably suspected of being proceeds of crime.
Asked by defence lawyer Nellie Muti how much money should be taken to the bank, Biemba said any amount above K5 million.

Earlier, Biemba who told the court that Liato was his uncle, said if he had known that Liato was a criminal, he would not have worked for him.

He said he knew Liato very well and that he was not a violent person.
Biemba testified that prior to the law enforcement agencies' discovery of the K2.1 billion, Liato never harassed or threatened to kill him.

Biemba who narrated several times before court how Liato and his relatives threatened to kill him and the other two workers at the farm after the K2.1 billion was discovered testified that although Liato had a right to keep money in a manner he deemed safe, it was wrong to bury money underground, saying the amount was too big.

Asked whether he was aware that Liato as a citizen of Zambia had a right to keep money wherever he wanted, Biemba said: "What you are saying is true but that money was just too much."

He further testified that his relationship with Liato had ended because of the utterances made to the effect that he and his co-workers would be killed or that they would go mad.

Biemba said he was not aware that K600 million of the money dug out from Liato's farm had not been accounted for.

Earlier in examination-in-chief led by Director of Public Prosecutions Mutembo Nchito, Biemba said Liato kept telling him and his co-workers that they had betrayed him over the K2.1 billion buried at the farm.

He narrated that two or three days after Liato was arrested in relation to the K2.1 billion and later released on police bond, he went to his farm in Mwembeshi around midnight and picked up his workers whom he accused of having sold him out to the police.

"He told me that I had sold him out and killed him; that his things were gone. So, I asked how I had sold him and he told me that ‘just keep quiet'," Biemba said.

He added that Liato, his brother Peter and his sister, slapped him at different times during the same night he picked them up from the farm.

"When we got to the tarmac, heading towards Mongu, Mr Liato told us we had sold him out. His elder brother, Peter, came out of the vehicle and slapped me at the back of my head," said Biemba.

"I asked him why he was slapping me and he said we were criminals. At Mwembeshi, at Mr. Liato's lodge…we asked why he was not letting us out of the vehicle and he said he would not do that because we are criminals. He said we were criminals who would be killed one after the other."

Another witness testified that he was working at Liato's farm when police officers went and unearthed two trunks of money.

Kalu Chiswaswa told the court that he accompanied the police officers to the police station and witnessed the money being counted although he did not take part in the actual counting.

Trial in the matter continues on January 24, 2011.