Chiyeso Lungu U-turns on having her graft case dismissed for irregularity
FORMER president Edgar Lungu’s daughter Chiyeso has now backtracked on her request to the Economic and Financial Crimes Court, to have her ‘corruption’ case dismissed on a technicality.
Lungu’s daughter informed the Court that she will wait on the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to serve her the notice of motion so that she can fight it out with the State and prevent it from depriving her of her possessions.
Chiyeso asked Court to throw out the case in which the State wants to grab her properties worth K9.3 million on suspicion that they were amassed through graft.
She said the Director of Public Prosecutions Gilbert Phiri has instituted an action against her yet he fas failed to serve her the court documents.
In her affidavit in support of summons to set aside proceedings for irregularity Chiyeso stated that she is ignorant about the reliefs sought by the State because she has not been served the originating notice of motion relating to her ‘graft’ case.
But in an affidavit in support of summons to set aside proceedings for irregularity, Emmanuel Khondowe a senior investigations officer at the Drug Enforcement Commission said when effecting service of the Court documents he notified Chiyeso about the nature of the application to alert her so that she can prepare defense.
He said there was no neglect to serve the notice of motion.
Khondowe said Chiyeso was was fully aware of the law suit and equipped to offer a valid response.
When the matter came up for a status conference the Court indicated that it could not endorse Chiyeso’s summons as the particulars of the notice contained issues to do with a similar case involving her brother Dalitso.
According to the documents the parties in the summons indicated the State and Chiyeso but the particulars of the same indicated Dalitso and his company.
Chiyeso’s lawyer indicated that the former plot one baby had a change of heart in having litigation ended on a technicality.
She said she is eager to take on the State and prove that her two farms with a high-cost house, four chicken runs, Crest lodge and three flats in Lusaka’s State Lodge area, worth K9, 375, 438.62, which was acquired between 2013 and 2021, were not amassed through grand corruption when her father served as the republic’s sixth president.
In this case the DPP has moved a motion of a non conviction based forfeiture order in the Economic and Financial Crimes Court seeking a relief that Chiyeso’s property be forfeited to the State.
Khondowe on behalf of the DPP argued that the former president’s daughter has assets that are disproportionate to her income neither did she have viable sources of income.
By Mwaka Ndawa
Kalemba