A state witness claiming to be an IT expert from the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) faces jail of up to six months after the Lusaka magistrates court found him guilty of perjury.
This is in a case where Lusaka lawyers Keith has been accused of plotting to bribe a public officer Monica Chipanta from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP’s) office.
Cheelo was presented as a key state witness by prosecutors from the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC), to adduce evidence that he analysed data in form of a voice recording from a mobile that was secretly used to record Keith Mweemba.
But on Friday last week, Lusaka Magistrate Lameck Mwale found Cheelo guilty of contempt of court after confessing that he (Cheelo) told the court lies on oath.
Cheelo lied to the court that he was a qualified Information Technology expert from ZICTA and that he had trained in Zambia and abroad when in fact he had non of those credentials.
“I have worked for ZICTA for seven years and I am 29 years old. I have a diploma in computer programming from NIPA and I happen to be a forensic expert,” he said.
Cheelo was trying to substantiate that he was a computer forensic expert from ZICTA and that he was qualified to examine and authenticate a mobile phone recording in which lawyer Keith Mweemba was purported to have attempted to corrupt an officer from the DPP’s office.
But during cross examination, defence lawyer Makebi Zulu asked Cheelo to prove his academic qualifications but he gave conflicting statements. This was after the lawyer sought clarifications from Cheelo on his true qualifications.
“I told the court that I studied certificate in Information programming and System (CIPS), but I forgot that it was a Diploma in Information Programming Systems,” Cheelo said.
But when the defence asked Cheelo to furnish the court with originals of his qualifications, Cheelo failed to provide his papers claiming that his employers had stopped him from tendering them as evidence in court because it was a security breach.
“I was ordered by the court to bring my diploma and I understood that to be an order. I have not brought it to court. My employers have told me not to bring it. I have a diploma, the diploma is at home. I am declining to answer. I wish to apologise to this court that I mixed up about NIPA and I have never been there, hence I cannot produce the documents as ordered by this court. It is true I have never been to NIPA. I don’t have CIPS and that is where the mix up is. I also don’t have DIPS. Thats all part of the mix up. When I said that my diploma was at home, it was a lie and I lied on oath. My diploma was not at home and I was not drunk when I said all these things,” Cheelo told the court when queried by the defence.
Cheelo said it was not the first time he was uttering falsehoods in court since he also gave false evidence in another court involving journalists Clayson Hamasaka and Thomas Zyambo.
“This is not the first time I am testifying in court. I was testifying before honourable Musukwa and if I said I had a diploma, then it was also a lie. I am on oath to say the truth and yes I broke the oath to say I had these qualifications. I remember saying I am an expert in this field, but you are right I am not an expert since I don’t have qualifications in this field. The only qualifications I have are seminars, workshops and trainings,” Cheelo said.
Cheelo said he was not sure whether the purported recoding of Mweemba was accurate or not because he was not qualified.
“With regards to P2 (evidence), I may or may not be right. I guess that I may not be right or accurate because I am not qualified in this field. I hope to be qualified someday and I didn’t analyse the phone used to record and the true picture of what transpired can only be gotten from the phone and not the file I analysed,” he said.
At this moment, the defence applied that Cheelo be cited for contemp of court for deliberately telling lies and subverting the course of justice.
The application by the defence followed an earlier application to declare Cheelo a refractory (disobedient) witness after he had refused to answer questions on oath. He was subsequently sent to remand prison at Lusaka Central Prison.
And another defence lawyer, Gilbert Phiri further made an application to cite Cheelo for contempt and Magistrate Lameck Mwale ruled in favour of the defence.
“I have looked at the record and answers that the witness has given and I agree with the defence application that the witness is in contempt of court,” magistrate Mwale said.
Magistrate Mwale instructed the state to draft necessary papers for Cheelo’s perjury offence.
According to the legal experts and sources within LAZ, perjury is the offence of giving false evidence or evidence which may be true but which the person giving it does not believe to be true and it is punishable by up to seven years imprisonment or a fine or both.
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