By NATION REPORTER
LILIAN Fulata Shawa Siyunyi has charged that her suspension, which has led to her dismissal by President Hakainde Hichilema was effected before the Judicial Complaints Committee (JCC) had completed hearing her case as out of the 11 complaints against her, only two were heard.
Last week, Ms Siyunyi filed a fresh petition to the Constitutional Court, in which she is challenging the legality of the ongoing sittings and hearing of the JCC.
Members of the Commission are said to be still sitting in an attempt to finalise the report from which President Hichilema would have based her dismissal.
Ms Siyunyi has argued that the refusal by President Hichilema to grant her, in writing, a waiver of Oath of Office so that she could testify before the JCC which recommended her suspension leading to her dismissal constituted a breach of the Constitution.
The former DPP has told the Constitutional Court that the sittings of the JCC which led to her suspension as DPP were all in breach of the Constitution and are therefore null and void.
She has also stated that the Attorney General, being the chief legal advisor to the government breached the Constitution when he failed to prosecute the complaints from a number of complainants including the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) and the MMD was unconstitutional and that the hearing thereof before the JCC in the absence of the Attorney General were null and void ab initio of legal effect.
In her petition filed in the Constitutional Court challenging her suspension, Ms Siyunyi has submitted that the decision by the JCC to hear her in the absence of her lawyers after it found a prima facie case against her was unconstitutional and the proceedings thereof null and void.
The JCC is said to have only received the final submissions for its hearing on Thursday last week, a day before Ms Siyunyi’s dismissal. She has since been fired.
She is demanding an order that the JCC was in direct breach of the Constitution when it kept evidence that was favourable to her from Mr Gaston Sichilima and allowing the complainant to introduce new evidence after the closure of the complaint’s case.
She has submitted that the JCC did not form a proper quorum during their sittings in her matter and therefore the hearing that ensued was null and void and of no legal effect.
Ms Siyunyi argued that while she was notified of 11 complaints and asked to respond to each of the allegations, the JCC decided to hear only two complaints against her from which she was accused of having abused her authority.
Ms Siyunyi stated that even after she had informed the JCC that she had not only lost her father but was also unwell to attend the hearing, the Commission proceeded to hear the complaints and their witnesses from the MMD and Tobias Milambo in her absence.
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