A LUSAKA visionary impaired business executive has been jailed to two years in each of the six counts after he was found guilty of hacking into more than seven politicians’ mobile phones and stealing talk-time worthy more than K18, 000.
Jairos Tembo, 25 of Kanyama Township, a losing Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) candidate in the 2011 elections will however, only serve two years because the sentences would run concurrently.
Principal magistrate Aridah Chuulu on Wednesday sentenced to 24 months in each of the six counts that he was convicted of in April this year.
Tembo who gave his particulars as being a journalist and business executive was charged with unauthorised access to data and theft of talk-time from several politicians and a business executive, owner of Muvi television, Steve Nyirenda who is his cousin.
Among the politicians who fell prey to Tembo’s dubious and fraudulent deeds were Commerce Minister Robert Sichinga, former defence Minister Geoffrey Mwamba, Kabwata Member of Parliament Given Lubinda, Willie Nsanda, Michael Mabenga, Mike Mulongoti and retired politician Vernon Mwaanga.
Tembo of house number 230 old Kanyama Township committed the offences between December and July 18, 2012.
Ms Chuulu said in her judgment delivered on Wednesday that although she had taken into consideration the challenges Tembo was facing in prison as a visionary impaired person, she was sending him to jail because the offence he committed was serious.
She said that the offence of hacking into people’s mobile phone and stealing their talk time was serious and that members of the public could not be served with that kind of behavior.
Ms Chuulu said that she was alive to the fact that Tembo was already serving another sentence slapped to him by another court which he has since appealed against.
” I will however be lenient with you and sentence you to 24 months in count 1, 24 months in count two, in count three 24 months, 24 months in count four, in count eight , 24 months and 24 months in count 13 but these shall run concurrently with effect from the day of arrest” Ms Chuulu said.
This means that Tembo would only serve 24 months in all the six counts that he was convicted of.
Tembo later thanked the court for the effort it made to bring witnesses to court to testify on his behaviour.
He, however said it was one of the waste times of his life and heaped the blame on the investigations officers whom he accused of not thoroughly investigating the case.
Tembo said if only the officers had investigated had not wrongly investigated the case, it would have been acquitted of the offences.
He said he would appeal to the high court against both the conviction and sentence after holding a press conference from prison to air his grievances against fellow journalists, Airtel and investigations officers.
“I feel a lot of things were wrongly done during the investigations. We will be holding a press conference because not all people who are in prison committed the offences” Tembo said.
Holding a press conference from the cell Jail? Awe iliko bad naba Convict brother Talktime Tembo.
What a loss! CID should have struck a deal with him to work for them.
Very smart Jairos! I didn’t know that there are smart Chipata people. Give Jairos a job as a shu shu shu instead of imprisoning him.
LT, the term is Vision Impaired, not Visionary Impaired!
Arrogant criminal. You stole other people’s talk time, therefor jail time awaits you, now shut up!
What a waste of resources. ..ZP or Defence would have cut a deal with this guy to join their team.
You right!I thought so aswell cause most of the hackers in the states ‘re forced to join NASA or the govt.Unlike prison.
This highlight a serious void of security of information on mobile devices. Network provides should use this incident to improve mobile phone security. To access talk time on a mobile device i guess one has to breach the network security as user accounts are kept on the network provider’s server. This is a serious workup call for network providers and i wonder what other information was has been stollen.
There is nothing genius about the guy. He is a mere petty thief. This was not hacking as per LT report in the way we know serious hacker. This guy thrived on sim replacing mobile numbers of the victims due to the weakness that was there in the mobile companies. Basically he would get to know your number and know three people you frequently call and would change the sim easily and have password changed then share the talk time found to his own mobile. I don’t see why he must be called a genius by most blogger here.
‘visionary’ impaired person? Is a typo or just poor writing skills?
Uyuy muntu ni genious,no wonder he will hold a press conference in prison.
There is nothing genius about the guy. He is a mere petty thief. This was not hacking as per LT report in the way we know serious hacker. This guy thrived on sim replacing mobile numbers of the victims due to the weakness that was there in the mobile companies. Basically he would get to know your number and know three people you frequently call and would change the sim easily and have password changed then share the talk time found to his own mobile. I don’t see why he must be called a genius by most blogger here.