Tue, 20 Dec 2016 10:31:20 +0000 IT IS rare that a magistrate’s court can refuse to grant anyone an application for bail pending appeal to the High Court as happened in the case of freelance journalist Chanda Chimba 111 over the trial in which he is nothing but a pawn in a game of powerful political chess. Chimba has been jailed for two years after being found guilty on two counts of unlawful printing and publication of two propaganda tabloids, the News of our Times and Stand up for Zambia, for which he was hired by a certain former ruling party to tarnish the image of a leading former opposition leader. He was also convicted on one count of disposal of property suspected to be proceeds of crime and fined K1,000. Two of his co-accused, a senior politician and former senior civil servant, were acquitted. The court first refused to accept his plea during mitigation […]
