TORN BILL OF DIVORCEMENT WAS WRITTEN BY THE LATE SHIKAPWASHA – HANDWRITING EXPERT
THE revelations by the late Ronald Shikapwasha’s daughter Vanessa that her father had divorced his wife of many years Jane Lusengo prior to his death, were yesterday validated by a handwriting expert who proved that the handwriting on the Bill of divorcement which Lusengo is alleged to have shredded belonged to general Shikapwasha.
A Bill of divorcement is a certificate of divorce written by a man, which he gives to his wife to dissolve their marriage upon discovering that she is adulterous.
In this case 73 year-old Jane Lusengo is on trial in the High Court for the alleged murder of her husband.
Lusengo is accused of ending the former ZAF commander’s life with a double barrel shotgun on January 15, 2024.
In her testimony Vanessa narrated that she learnt that her father had signed a Bill of Divorcement freeing her mother owing to extra-marital affairs.
She said that after the shooting incident whilst she and her aunt were praying, petitioning God to save her fathers life, she saw Lusengo tearing papers from a diary which she had retrieved under her mattress at the foot of the bed and through them in the kitchen bin.
Vanessa said she asked her step sister Milika to pick up the papers from the bin and keep them safe so that they would be handed over to the police.
In his testimony before judge Conceptor Zulu,
David Zulu a senior superintendent and forensic handwriting expert corroborated the evidence by Vanessa regarding the Bill of divorcement.
He said on January 22, 2024 he received specimen samples one set was classified as questionable documents the other was a nine paged bill of divorcements bearing handwritings and a signature on page nine.
“ I received torn pieces of paper in a black plastic also bearing handwriting and a signature . I had to re-arrange the torn pieces of paper so that they could be readable and put them in a transparent sheet,” Zulu said.
“Accompanying these documents were request handwriting and signature samples marked under the name Jane Lusengo. The third were random or course of business samples or previous writing these were marked in the following persons name.”
He said other course of business samples were note books marked in the name of Ronald Shikapwasha.
Zulu said the note books and diaries belonging to the couple were submitted to the forensic sciences laboratory to ascertain whether or not, any of the two could have written or signed on the ninth page of the Bill of divorcement in question or the tron pieces of paper bearing a handwriting and a signature.
“I examined these documents physically and under comparison microscope where I effected a side by side analysis between the handwriting as well as signature on the bill of divorcement and torn pieces of paper against the provided handwriting and signature samples marked under Jane Lusengo and Ronald Shikapwasha,” Zulu said .
“After a thorough analysis I observed dissimilarities between the handwriting and signatures obtaining on the disputed documents against the provided specimen handwriting or signature samples marked under Jane Lusengo’s names.”
He said the handwriting on the pice of paper was similar to one Shikapwasha’s diaries.
“I observed strong similarities between the handwriting aswel as the signatures obtaining on the two documents in question against the in provided handwriting and signature specimen samples marked under the name Ronald Shikapwasha ,” said Zulu
Lusengo’s lawyer Gilbert Pindani opposed to the production of the diaries to form part of Zulu’s evidence.
Pindani said Zulu has proved he’s an expert witness as he did not file his credentials to prove that he is an expert.
“The status of an expert witness is that of high caliber and knowledge on the subject which must be demonstrated through these educational credentials,” he said.
“It is our prayer that the objection be sustained for lack of demonstration that this witness is indeed an expert.”
Deputy chief State advocate Chipola Bako asked for more time to respond.
Judge Zulu as the parties to file written submissions due to time and adjourned the case to August 26 at 14:00 hours.
Kalemba