Thu, 11 May 2017 12:36:53 +0000
By NATION REPORTER
GOVERNMENT had ordered ZCCM-Investment Holdings to withdraw the case against Zambia’s leading coper producing company First Quantum Mineral Limited before the Lusaka High Court.
This is in a matter that was originally commenced before the London Court of Arbitration in 2007 but that ZCCM-IH also commenced proceedings before the Lusaka High Court, it remains unclear how a matter before the London Court of Arbitration was brought before the Lusaka High Court in Zambia.
According to Bloomberg, an international online media, the Zambian Government has instructed that the matter be withdrawn from the Lusaka Courts in an effort to allow for an amicable settlement, in a matter that would have seem senior leaders of FQM ostracised.
This is the case in which ZCCM-IH also appointed top British lawyer Michael Sullivan who was part of the Task Force legal team and who led the prosecution of second Republican President, Frederick Chiluba, in the famous Zamtrop trial. Mr Sullivan was recruited by ZCCM-HI to prosecute FQM, Zambia’s largest mining company on matters that date as far back as 2007.
The matter was originally commenced and remains active before a London Court but that ZCCM-IH commenced similar proceedings in Lusaka.
Mr. Sullivan, a Barrister who was practicing with DLA Piper, was among the lawyers recruited by the Task Force on Corruption under chairman, Mark Chona, who was working in close collaboration with former DPP Mutembo Nchito and Post Editor, Fred M’membe.
Yesterday, the Zambian Government reportedly issued instructions for the state investment company to drop its fraud case against FQM together with its directors before the Lusaka High Court while the matter still continued being active in the London Court of Arbitration.
FQM had earlier asked the Attorney General for his intervention over fears that its directors named in the case could be arrested if they attempted to enter the country.
ZCCM-IH, which has a 20 percent stake in First Quantum’s flagship Kansanshi Mine, started arbitration proceedings against the company in London last year.
The ZCCM-IH suit presented among the defendants FQM, FQM Finance Limited, company president Phillip KR Pascall, Arthur Mathias Pascal, Clive Newall, Martin Rowley and Kansanshi Mining Plc.
