Chitotela property case sent back to High Court
By Esther Chisola
A PANEL of three Supreme Court judges, among them the Chief Justice Mumba Malila, has quashed the Economic and Financial Crimes Court (EFCC) High Court division judgement which seized jailed former tourism minister Ronald Chitotela’s property in State Lodge.
Malila, who delivered the judgement on behalf of Justice Roydah Kaoma and Fulgency Mwenya, ruled that there was no order made in transferring the file to the judge-in-charge.
“In the present case, from the correspondence exchanged between the judge initially given conduct of this matter and the judge-in-charge, the reason for the transfer of the case file to the EFCC was the mischaracterisation of the case as an economic and financial crimes matter when it clearly was not. There is no evidence that an order was made in transferring the file to the judge-in-charge (General Division) or indeed to the judges of the EFCC, nor is there anything on record confirming the consent of the transferee judges,” ruled the court.
It said EFCC lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter.
“We hold that the transfer or allocation of the case to the EFCC was irregular. In the result, the EFCC lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter. In consequence, the judgment of the court is hereby squashed. We order that the matter be remitted to the High Court to be heard in the General Division under the original cause number. As the irregularity was occasioned by the court’s own mischaracterisation of the matter, we order that each party bears its own costs,” ruled the court.
Some years back, Chitotela who is serving a 10-year jail sentence, was sued by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), which won the case, and he lost his State Lodge property through forfeiture.
However, Chitotela challenged the court’s decision, arguing that the seizure of his property by ACC was illegal as it was legally and genuinely acquired.
But the matter was allocated to the Economic and Financial Crimes Court, which dismissed his petition because Chitotela had failed to prove his claim on a balance of probabilities.
His appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
Chitotela further took the matter to the Supreme Court, which has agreed with him and allowed his matter to start afresh in the High Court.
