Henry Kapoko jailed
By JUSTINA MULENGA THE Lusaka Magistrate’s court has convicted and sentenced former Ministry of Health Human Resource Officer Henry Kapoko to 12 years imprisonment on six counts of abuse of authority and money laundering involving K1,173,402,000.
Magistrate Chulu yesterday convicted Kapoko to two years imprisonment with hard labour for each of the six counts which will run concurrently.
In this matter, the accused person, Henry Kapoko 46, is facing six counts of abuse of office and money laundering contrary to the laws of Zambia.
Ms Chulu said in all the counts, it was found that Kapoko was directly or indirectly involved in all the money transactions.
It was alleged that in counts three, four, five and six, on dates unknown but between February 29th 2008 and May 15th 2008 in Lusaka, whilst jointly acting together with other persons unknown, the accused person was directly or indirectly involved in business transactions that involved K586, 701, 000, money acquired from illegal activities.
It was alleged that the money was also used to purchase a house in Olympia and procure some other properties belonging to Kapoko.
The amount K586, 701, 000 was doubled on two counts and totaled up to K1, 173,402,000.
Magistrate Chulu said the amount that had been laundered was too much and could help the nation in many ways such as fighting poverty.
“The country has so many poor people and that money would have been used to help the poor and not being acquired by one person out of greed,” she said.
She said such a judgement was the longest she had passed as it involved a lot of money that belonged to the nation.
However, during mitigation, magistrate Chulu considered the mitigation by defence counsel Kelvin Bwalya Fube, and sentenced the accused person to two years imprisonment with hard labour on each of the six counts which will run concurrently.
Meanwhile, one of the accused in count three, Norbert Peleti was acquitted as it was found that Kapoko was one alleged to have been involved directly or indirectly in cash money transactions.