Mon, 14 Aug 2017 13:18:18 +0000
By Bennie Mundando
ONE of the lawyers representing UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema in the treason case, Gilbert Phiri, has been banned by the Judiciary from partici-pating in any court for professional misconduct until his cases is determined by the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ).
According to a letter dated August 11, 2017 ad-dressed to LAZ president Linda Kasonde and signed by chief registrar Charles Kafunda, Mr. Phiri is said to have circulated two articles to the media in which he described the court’s action to bar reporters from using phones during Mr. Hichilema’s trial as unlaw-ful and that it would not be tolerated.
In another article, Mr. Phiri is said to have indicated that the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) will have to prove, under the first overt act, that Mr. Hichilema and Pretorius Haloba held a meeting on April 5, 2017 and that she must prove that by pro-ducing minutes of the meeting in court or a record-ing of the meeting or testimony of someone who at-tended the meeting.
He is reported to have said a meeting by itself proved nothing and that the DPP must also show that what was discussed and agreed at the alleged meeting was to mobilise an advance party to go to the Kuomboka ceremony where Mr. Hichilema would be treated as a president or accorded the status of a Republican President.
He is also alleged to have claimed there was no trea-son that was revealed in the first overt act and that the question that the DPP needed to answer clearly was how Mr. Hichilema was going to overthrow the government by being accorded the status of republi-can president in Mongu.
“The attention of the Judiciary has been drawn to a number of articles which have been circulating in the news media, on the internet since August 10, 2017 which have been attributed to Mr. Gilbert Phiri, a private legal practitioner.
“The said articles have been running under various headings such as “plans by court to stop journalists from using phones during HH’s trial is totally un-lawful and won’t be tolerated –HH’s lawyer (the first article)” and “HH court updates warming up for Monday – HH’s lawyer Gilbert Phiri writes (second article)”.
“Arising from the foregoing, the Judiciary hereby lodges a formal complaint of professional miscon-duct against the named legal practitioner and expects your association to take the necessary steps against the practitioner.”
“In the meantime, I have been directed to inform you that until the complaint against the practitioner in question is concluded, he will not be allowed audi-ence before any court,” Mr. Kafunda said.
He warned that the Judiciary will not hesitate to deal with such erring practitioners in future using the powers vested in it.
“The Judiciary wishes to serve a general notice to all your members that in future, courts will not hesitate to deal with any erring practitioner in accordance with the powers vested in them,” he said.
