By CHARLES MUSONDA
FORMER Mandevu aspiring parliamentary candidate Amon Maviya, says his arrest and subsequent prosecution was aimed at blocking him from being adopted on the Patriotic Front (PF) ticket.
Maviya has been put on his defence for alleged forgery, uttering false documents and obtaining goods by false pretenses.
It is alleged in the first count that on August 3, 2020, Maviya, with intent to deceive or defraud, forged a Zambia Forestry and Forest Industries Corporation (ZAFFICO) acknowledgement receipt dated August 8, 2020 by purporting to show that it was genuinely issued and signed by ZAFFICO when in fact not.
In the second count, it is alleged that on the same date, Maviya knowingly and fraudulently uttered a ZAFFICO acknowledgement receipt dated August 8, 2020 to Min Jae Kwon.
It is alleged in the third count that on August 1, 2020, Maviya, with intent to deceive or defraud, forged an approval of lifting container by TSHL of China dated August 3, 2020 by purporting to show that it was genuinely issued and signed by Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.
In the fourth count, it is alleged that Maviya on August 3, 2020 knowingly and fraudulently uttered the approval of lifting containers by TSHL of China dated August 3, 2020 to Min Jae Kwon.
In count five it is alleged that between July 10, 2020 and August 24, 2020 with intent to defraud, Maviya allegedly obtained K89, 705.00 and US$3,500 cash from Min Jae Kwon by allegedly falsely pretending that he had Mukula logs and authority from ZAFFICO to sell when in fact not.
Opening his defence before Lusaka Magistrate Tabitha Mulenga yesterday, Maviya said he only met Mr. Min once in July 2020 after he finished addressing PF members in Mandevu constituency’s Roma ward 17 as he was seeking adoption.
He said Mr. Min asked for his help in the timber business in which the Chinese national was dealing with a Francis Kabwe whom he equally did not know.
He said he did not pay much attention to Min because he was not interested in what he told him until the end of November 2020 when he told him on the phone that he was concluding the transaction he was doing with Kabwe and that it was not making sense.
Maviya said as he was politically active in his quest to be adopted he started receiving phone calls from different police officers from different police stations asking if he knew Mr. Min and if he had done some transactions with him and he denied until he was detained on the eve of interviews for adoption.
He said the following day the officers who detained him did not show up and after one day they charged him with obtaining K580,000 and US$3,500 from Mr. Min by false pretences.
He said he was harassed and when the matter went to court the State amended the charge and changed the amounts to K89, 000 and US$3,500 after which the case was reallocated from a magistrate who initially handled the matter to Ms. Mulenga.
Maviya said he was shocked with allegations levelled against him and that he knows nothing about Mukula tree business because he is in another field of business. He said he has never worked for ZAFFICO and the Ministry of Lands for him to forge the documents in question.
He said he was emotional and the case he is facing denied him an opportunity to be adopted because the matter was all over social media after which he realized that he was being fought. Judgment comes on November 12, 2021.
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