RE: DENIAL OF CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS TO MR. CLEVER MPOHA

WE act for Mr. Clever Mpoha who has instructed us to rep resent him and his compa nies in which he holds shares regarding the arrest that was effected on him on the 17th August, 2022.

After the arrest your Pub lic Relations Manager Mr. Timothy Moono issued a press release on the same day announcing to the world that our client had been arrested.

In the press release you made an undertaking that, “Mpoha is expected to ap pear in court soon.”

We were informed that our client would appear in court on the 6th September, 2022. When we went to court we found that you were not ready and in fact did not have our Client’s matter on the cause list. We left court and travelled to your office where our client’s bond was extend ed to 6th October 2022 as the date he was to appear at the court.

After the arrest our client’s bank accounts and those of the companies that he runs were restricted. Our client is therefore unable to run his businesses as you have effec tively shut down his opera tions by restricting his bank accounts.

In between his arrest and today our client was sum moned to your offices and interviewed. Amongst the matters he was questioned on were the very same mat ters he had been arrested for. It therefore appears that the arrest was effected even before you had finished your investigations.

The belief that you are still conducting investigation# on a matter upon which arrest of our client has been effect ed is buttressed by the fact that again today your officers were not present when we went to court. Your office yet again failed to have the mat ter brought before the court.

This not only went against what you promised the pub lic in your press release of 17th August, 2022 but goes against Articles 11 and 18 of the Constitution of Zambia.

Article 18 on the Protec tion of Law states,

“(1) If any person is charged with a criminal of fence, then, unless the charge is withdrawn, the case shall be afforded a fair hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impar tial court established by law.”

Our client was charged almost two months ago and he has not been afforded a hearing within a reasonable time. The protection of the law provided for under Ar ticle 11 of the Constitution is therefore being cast aside and ignored.

In other words we are not following the Rule of Law in Zambia.

This ignoring of the Rule of Law is being done in the eyes of investors who have come to participate in Zam bia’s “Investment Week” run ning from 3rd to 9th October 2022.

Our client has also been restricted from travelling outside the country and yet you know that the majority of his business is conducted on the international stage. This hampers his ability to conduct his business and portrays a bad business environment.

The Honourable Minis ter of Finance only yesterday stated that law enforcement agencies and other govern ment bodies should not ha rass entities that pay tax. Our client through his companies employs over eight hundred Zambians for whom he pays PAYE tax. His companies also pay taxes that run into hun dreds of millions. Our client who through his business in terests contributes signifi cantly to our country’s tax revenue basket has had his business interests crippled through your actions.

Your actions in the man ner in which you are han dling our client’s case goes completely against what the Minister of Finance has set out as governments pitch to attract investment in Zambia.

The delay in having his matter heard and the con tinued restriction of his ac counts jeopardises the live lihood of over eight hundred people and hampers the ca pability of the companies to raise money to meet not only their tax obligations but even the salaries of their workers.

His destruction and that of his companies’ commer cial reputation with its snow balling effects of loss of busi ness and capital injection, which runs into millions of dollars will ultimately be paid by the taxpayer.

Whereas you have charged our client over a few hundred thousand dollars, you have restricted million of dollars which are more than ten times the amount in your charges. This certainly can not be said to be just and fair nor can it therefore be shown to be reasonably justified in a democratic society.

By copy of this letter we are putting the Attorney Gen eral on notice that should you continue the violation of our client’s constitutional rights, we shall be seeking gener al, punitive and exemplary damages against the state.

Kindly acknowledge re ceipt of this letter by signing and returning copy of the same.