ACC TO APPEAL LUBINDA’S ACQUITTAL
By Darius Choonya
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) says it will appeal the acquittal of Patriotic Front (PF) faction Vice President, Given Lubinda, who was facing corruption allegations.
According to ACC Head Corporate Communications, Timothy Moono, the commission is currently studying the judgement.
On Thursday, April 18, 2024, The Economic and Financial Crimes Court acquitted Mr. Lubinda on corruption charges of possessing properties reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime.
The court said the properties acquired by Mr. Lubinda were not proceeds of crime but legally acquired.
According to the court, funds received by the accused in his dollar account which the state alleged were proceeds of crime, were instead in respect of a loan facility which his company, Highview Investment entered into with Qingdao Ruichang Cotton company.
In this matter, the state had accused Mr. Lubinda of having received 50,000 dollars from China Africa Cotton Limited and 180,000 dollars from Qingdao Ruichang Cotton Industrial Company Limited, property reasonably suspected of being a proceed of crime.
Please go ahead and appeal. Let’s not forget that PF still has a lot of friends and sympathizers in the judiciary who can twist matters. Maybe that’s why the fight against corruption seem to be slow. ACC should do their best, who doesn’t know the evils of most ( not all) PF guys while in office !
But how thorough was the investigation? These are criminal proceedings. Did the ACC extend their investigation to the Chinese companies that were transferring money to Given Lubinda? How were the transfers of the money to Lubinda being described in the Chinese companies’ accounts? I hv no recollection from newspaper coverage of the trial that a responsible officer from the Chinese company was summoned to testify for the ACC. When a proper job is done by investigators and prosecutors, even corrupt courts are compelled to do nothing else but convict because the consequences of not doing so would reflect as incompetence. Where room for doubt is left, the courts will always aquit suspects.
As elsewhere in Africa,it’s time for settling old scores!!