Shikulu Tie Mwape now wants compensation for being prosecuted over dagga allegations.
THREE months after his acquittal, 81-year-old Tie Mwape has sued the State in the Constitutional Court in connection with his prosecution for drug trafficking.
The grandpa is seeking damages for unlawful arrest, detention and prosecution.
Mr Mwape wants the court to order that his arrest, prosecution and conviction without establishing the contents of the active ingredient of cannabis in the alleged marijuana allegedly found in his possession, was unconstitutional, illegal and void.
This is not all.
The petitioner, who was acquitted based on a technicality, further seeks a declaration that all arrests of alleged drug traffickers which do not adhere to sections 2, 15 (1) (2) and 16 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic substances Act are unconstitutional, illegal and void.
Further, he wants an order that the possession of cannabis of the grade (value) of 0.3 percent is legal.
His argument is that 0.3percent does not fall within the prohibited grades under Narcotic and psychotropic substances Act as read together with the Act’s Third Schedule which provides that a product must have over 0.3 percent of Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in cannabis, to be deemed a psychotropic substance.
Late last year, the old man was arrested and charged with trafficking in psychotropic substances without authority, allegations which happened on November 26 last year at the accused’s house.
But in January this year, the Lusaka Magistrate’s acquitted Mr Mwape of Kavuma Village, Chongwe of drug trafficking because the prosecution team failed to establish the exact quantity of the alleged marijuana found on him.
The magistrate found that the prosecution never proved beyond all reasonable doubt two important elements of determining the weight and percentage of Delta THC in the drug the accused alleged trafficked.
Credit Mwebantu