The Economic and Financial Crimes Court sitting in Ndola has granted bail to former Postmaster general Macpherson Chanda and two others pending their appeal.
This is in a case in which Chanda, Best Mwaichi and Isaac Kamwimba were convicted and sentenced to two years simple imprisonment for corrupt practices involving over 300 million Kwacha.
The trio, in their capacities as postmaster general, director of finance and director of operations, unlawfully diverted Social Cash Transfer funds amounting to K335, 108, 834 without lawful authority.
Kaunda Sakwanda ordered Chanda, Mwaichi and Kamwimba to provide two working sureties in the sum of K50, 000 each in their own recognizance.
Magistrate Kaunda further stayed the execution of the statutory judgement which was entered in the favour of the Attorney general in the sum of K335 million.
On Monday this week, Chanda,Mwaichi and Kamwimba appealed against their two year jail sentence arguing that the court erred when it found that the prosecution discharged its burden of proof beyond reasonable doubt.
When the case came before the Economic and Financial Crimes Court in Ndola, Magistrate Kaunda Sakwanda established that it was indisputable that the funds were placed in a fixed deposit account.
However, in a notice of appeal filed in the Ndola Magistrate’s Court on Monday this week, Chanda, Mwaichi and Kamwimba argued that their conviction was not fair.
The trio said the trial court erred in law and fact when it discontinued the applicability of section 10 of the third schedule of the postal services Act number 22 of 2009.
They further argued that the court erred when it held that the charge was not defective.
“The trial court erred in law and fact in convicting the accused persons when it was fully aware of witnesses tampering by the state.he said.
It also erred by invoking the provisions of section 17(1) (a) of the laws of the Criminal Procedure Code Chapter 88 of the Laws of Zambia in the absence of actual loss of any property belonging to the government, “reads the notice of appeal.