‘FTJ PROSECUTION ILLEGAL AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL’
IT was illegal and unconstitutional to prosecute Frederick Chiluba a Supreme Court Judge has said.
In his lecture on the lifting of presidential immunity yesterday, Judge Philip Musonda said the lifting of Dr. Chiluba’s immunity was illegal because the charges on which his immunity was lifted were not the same as those under which he was charged in court.
it was unfair, unconstitutional, and against natural justice that the charges on which Parliament lifted Dr Chiluba’s immunity were never brought before the court to enable him defend himself. -Judge Musonda
IT was illegal and unconstitutional to prosecute Frederick Chiluba a Supreme Court Judge has said.
In his lecture on the lifting of presidential immunity yesterday, Judge Philip Musonda said the lifting of Dr. Chiluba’s immunity was illegal because the charges on which his immunity was lifted were not the same as those under which he was charged in court.
Equally, Judge Musonda said, it was unfair, unconstitutional, and against natural justice that the charges on which Parliament lifted his immunity were never brought before the court to enable him defend himself.
He said Parliament never authorised the prosecution of Dr. Chiluba on the theft of US$5000 which was brought before the curt in Zambia. This, he said, was a breach of the Constitution.
Judge Musonda has appealed for codification and institutionalisation of mechanisms to prosecute former presidents to remove political bias before the removal of their immunity.
Citing Article 8(5) of the Constitution, Judge Musonda said that the procedures were flouted because the constitutional requirement of all his grounds for offences committed to justify the removal of his immunity were not followed.
“To remove the immunity, specific Acts must be cited and tried in the courts of law. In this case, the acts cited in Parliament and on which the National Assembly removed his immunity were not the same as those in the courts of law,” Judge Musonda said.
He said the allegations against Dr. Chiluba for which his immunity was removed lacked evidence.
“The sale of Ramcoz was a commercial act done by the privatisation agency. The procurement of military equipment is nor a personal act. The London operations of ZCCM cannot be said to be Dr. Chiluba’s criminal acts. No outcome has been known over investigations on the 67 tankers of fuel that were said to have disappeared.
“The allegations did not allege with specificity, any criminal conduct and yet the Constitution obligates those who allege to be specific of a criminal charge and the court assumes criminal jurisdiction of those criminal charges which the National Assembly has authorised the former president to be charged with,” he said.