The Mongu High Court has found former PF Deputy Secretary General Mumbi Phiri and her co-accused Shebby Chilekwa with a case to answer.
This is in a matter in which the two are accused of murdering a UPND supporter, Lawrence Banda, during the council chairperson by-election in Kaoma District in 2019.
The matter has since been adjourned to December for the next session where the two are expected to defend themselves.
Ms Phiri and her co-accused Shebby Chilekwa pleaded not guilty to a murder charge of United Party for National Development (UPND) cadre Lawrence Banda.
The two who have been in incarceration without trial for over eight months finally had their day in court were they pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Ms Phiri was in arrested in February together with Mr Chilekwa over the murder of Mr Banda but had not been in court since despite pleas from various stakeholders to have her taken to court.
Early this week, A state witness , Donald Malimba led a team of defense lawyers and High Court Judge, Charles Zulu, to the crime scene where the alleged murder of Lawrence Banda took place in Kaoma’s Site and Service area in
The prosecution team visited two crime scenes within the Site and Service area which are approximately 500 meters away from each other.
One crime scene was said to be the point where Banda was allegedly shot and killed while the other one was alleged to be where an attempted murder of the then UPND Kaoma District Chairman, identified as Chola Simwawa, was committed.
Mr. Malimba, who is also a Kaoma District Investigations officer, told the court that investigations he conducted revealed that the person who shot at Banda came out of the vehicle that was stationed at the scene he however did not name but was able to narrate how the suspect moved from where the suspected PF vehicle was parked to where the deceased and others were.
He told the court how difficult it was to get witnesses from the neighbourhood because no one was willing to testify for fear of being arrested by the police.
Mr. Malimba further testified that all the information he had was from his own investigations through people who were at the scene.
But when asked by the defense lawyer, Makebi Zulu, as to whether the state witness brought an expert crime investigations officer at the scene at that time, Mr. Malimba told the court that no expert was brought.
At the second scene for attempted murder of Chola Simwawa, Mr. Malimba told the court that one empty cartridge was picked approximately 100 meters away from the UPND camp.
Mrs. Phiri and Mr. Chilekwa are represented by Makebi Zulu, Charles Changano and Jonas Zimba from Makebi Zulu and Associates.
Of course they have found a case. It was expected when we are dealing with a very vengeful and angry childish president who is giving orders to courts and police. Hh should realise that he won’t be in that position forever.
If Banda had stayed in Lusaka, he would be enjoying life together with his family. No amount of compensation or length jail sentence will fill the gap he’s left in his family.
This is lesson everyone must learn especially the long awaited and grossly interfered with Kabushi and Kwacha by elections… ba Lusaka stay in Lusaka to avoid bloodshed…. ECZ do the right thing.
FAKE
In all the verbatim court proceedings I read concerning this case no single witness mentioned Mumbi Phiri or Shebby Chilekwa Pulling the trigger. Is the judge using circumstantial evidence to put the accused on their defense? The prosecutors will struggle to adduce incriminating evidence against the two to warrant conviction. The biurden of proof is still on the prosecution to directly link the two to murder of Lawrence Banda
Tell me about it, I also read the verbatim reports and no one linked the two accused with the exception of the second witness who said he heard Mumbi Phiri yelling to someone to kill the person. Which in itself is not evidence of anything since it cannot be succesfully used to convict anyone. The state managed to establish that Lawrence Banda died by gunshot wound in Kaoma. That was all they managed to do.
Perhaps the Judge felt pressured to proceed? Otherwise I don’t see any conviction here.
Don’t miss the point. If it’s established that the gun shot came from the vehicle where MP & Chilekwa were and they are jointly charged, you don’t need an eye witness to find them with a case to answer. Remember Mumbi and Chilekwa were seen in the same vehicle where the only gun mentioned in trial was seen.
3.1 Chiza even that is in conflict. There’s a witness that mentioned 2 gunshot wounds. It’s a weak case. I want to read what Makebi Zulu submitted at the no case to answer stage. The shouting hasn’t been collaborated and it came from a witness that gave his statement at Lilayi after so many months. He was rehearsed. It’s a weak case. May be this finding is just to excite the UPND and keep the suspects longer in jail.
3.3 You are right, I did hear conflicting expert witness statement, the doctor who conducted the autopsy in Lusaka said it was a single bullet wound entry to the head and the Kaoma doctor who treated Lawrence said it was two bullet wounds. Thats inconsequential at the end of the day, the doctors could have dedeuced gunshot wounds by themselves. Prosectution’s job was to prove that either Shelby or Mumbi Phiri were responsible for that. Shelby has been left clean, Mumbi has been implicated by one witness who said he heard her scream something about killing him.
There is another cadre who was slain ruthlessly in Solwezi on election day. The NWP violence perpetrators must be booked too. All lives matter.
Banda didn’t deserve to die three years ago. No one else does.
The latest Luangwa Council chair elections were just as violent. Look at the atrocities in Mwense, Lusangazi and Mkushi at yesterday’s nominations? Who benefits in this savagery? Will we ever learn?
I have given up on Zambian politics…. PF was a violent party and so is Upnd but surprising enough Mr Hakainde hasn’t said anything to condemn the violence. Anyway I have lived my life let young Spaka continue with his unbridled excitement.
This is factual let us see justice prevail otherwise it’s all in revenge which the Almighty God is the final justice of peace. It’s just that today Christianity has been compromised i will tell u am coming from a back ground of intersection where chiluba when he was threatened with the coup we went in prayers and by the time we were finishing praying he was back in the driving seat as a president. If you want us to go this way we will. God is the supreme judge of this universe.
Useless Zambian Judge….the dunderhead fossil cant think or reason !
A lot of open ignorance being flaunted on how courts arrive at certain descsions in most posts above, I reckon it is the crisis we are having in Zambia now where lack of objectivity has taken center stage, everything is political, people have stopped thinking, every thing is looked at with a partisan lens nor matter how independent the judges may be
Although they have been found with a case to answer they will eventually be acquitted because all state witnesses are contradicting themselves and no one seems to know for sure exactly what happened on that fateful day.
i am not a lawyer but certain facts about the case are worrying. Was it established beyond any reasonable doubt, by the prosecutor that the deceased was killed by shots fired from the gun that had been “seen ” in the vehicle Mumbi Phiri was in? The gun it self should have been presented in court. A ballistic expert should have presented evidence to the effect that the remnants of the bullet removed from the skull of the deceased matched with the remnants of the bullet fired from the same weapon which is before the court. I suppose we live in the third world!
Like, what killed Laurence Banda? Was it a stone or a gun projectile?
If it a gun, how many bullets struck him?
One doctor in Kaoma who saw him first says, “1”.
The second doctor attended to him at UTH mentions “2” bullet wounds in the head. Was he killed twice or some doctor is doctoring the truth?
Let’s halt this electoral agonising violence!
The prosecution has more ammunition………..
Just wait……..
What was a barber doing at the crime scene shaving the mp or what …just asking for the deceased
This issue is still very active in court.
And we are very active on Lusaka Times.
Glad, I was not at the accident scene. The Judge would have reasoned as follows; he was shot in the face and, at that time, you were facing him.
This is what happens when the Law makers control the Judiciary.
We as a family we are still waiting for the murder case against Bouwman Lusambo.
With Chishimba Kambwili as a witness. My aunt Mumbai Phiri cannot be picked as the only murderer from PF. They were many more.
All I hear is upnd members murdered during pf rule and not pf members murdered , why, What has happened to Menyani Zulu who was murdered by upnd cadres in Mufumbwe by elections, Kungo of the latest.
We are going no where in this country with kind of ruling and favoritism