State fails to link Chilangwa, Chitotela and five others to the August 2021 arson, assault case
….as witnesses fail to place the two former minister and five others on the scene physically or digitally….
KAWAMBWA, 22nd August, 2022
Today the KAWAMBWA subordinate court was left astonished as the State witnesses failed to Link Nickson Chilangwa, Ronald Chitotela, Mayor Chifumbe Kalumba and others to the 2021 arson case.
Details are that the two lawmakers and five others on the material day while acting together in Kawambwa assaulted four UPND members, damaged the windscreen of the Mahindra motor vehicle before setting it ablaze and threatened violence.
It is noted that when the matter came up before the Kawambwa magistrate, the two witnesses in the cases failed to prove any link between the activities of August 12, 2021 and all the accused.
“When the matter came up in the Kawambwa subordinate court today, the two state witnesses failed to prove their assertions that the Kawambwa, Pambashe Parliamentarians and five others were behind the activities of August 12, 2021”
The state has been since last year been adjourning the matter for various reasons and the court on December 8, 2021 ordered the state to surrender fingerprints of the accused in their original state as holding on to them is unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, in a related development the Kawambwa subordinate court jailed the UPND Luapula Province Youth Chairman Nelson Kalembwe and 4 others to 2 years imprisonment for a case of assault in a case of the August 2021 General elections.