Sat, 22 Jul 2017 13:24:50 +0000
By CHARLES MUSONDA
THE case in which murder convict Precious Longwe has been charged for theft of over K200,000 from Banc ABC yesterday failed to take off because, according to the public prosecutor, the officer-in-charge at Woodlands police station had not brought the cash exhibits to court.
And a suspended police reserve, who has been found with a case to answer for defamation of the President, has accused some regular officers at Chawama police of cooking up the charge against him out of vengeance.
When the matter came up for continued trial yesterday, public prosecutor Aaron Sunsuluka told Lusaka Magistrate Nthandose Chabala that both the remaining witness from Banc ABC and the arresting officer were present in court but the State was not ready to proceed.
“Unfortunately, we are unable to proceed due to non-availability of exhibits. I have just been informed by the arresting officer that the officer-in-charge at Woodlands Police Station, where the exhibits are kept, is not in the office and has failed to come with them to court today.
“We apologise for this predicament we have been found in today. I am aware that when the matter was adjourned, we had ample time to make arrangements to bring exhibits to court today,” Mr. Sunsuluka said.
In response, defence lawyer Osborne Ngoma accepted the apology and the reasons given for the adjournment but asked the court to send the message to the officer-in-charge not to interfere with the case by deliberately failing to release the exhibits.
“He should have left instructions if he knew he was not going to be in the office,” Mr. Ngoma said after which the case was adjourned to August 18, 2017.
Meanwhile, a police reserve who has been found with a case to answer for defamation of the President, has accused some regular officers at Chawama police post of cooking up the charge against him out of vengeance.
In this case, Peter Habasimbi, 49, is facing one count of defamation of the President, contrary to section 69 of the Penal Code.
Opening his defence yesterday, Habasimbi said he never uttered the said insulting words against President Lungu and all police officers, who testified against him, were coached to adduce similar evidence.
Habasimbi said the officers had a grudge against him for arresting a father of one of them in January this year. He said he was detained for 22 days and he only appeared in court after his relatives got involved in the case.
The matter was adjourned to August 18, 2017 for judgment.
