By Esther Chisola
Lawyer representing Davies Mwila, Charles Changano says his client was aware from the four witnesses that testified that their case is going nowhere noting that the nolle prosequi entered was not a surprise.
And Changano said Mwila and his co-accused Anna Mweetwa were on Wednesday not re-arrested after Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) officers tried to forcefully re-arrest them shortly after a nolle prosequi was entered.
On Wednesday, DEC officials forcefully re-arrested Mwila and Mweetwa after the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) entered a nolle prosequi in the matter in which they were facing charges of being in possession of funds valued at over K102 Million property reasonably suspected of being proceeds of crime.
The charges were in relation to the 2021 Election Campaigns funds.
But in an interview with Daily Revelation, Changano said the duo were not re-arrested.
“No, they were not re-arrested yesterday. They wanted to re-arrest them to which we protested to say it’s not their fault to have the nolle prosequi entered. The state faulted for failure to bring the two witnesses on two occasions and the law would not allow them to adjourn,” Changano said. “So, we protested; we refused. You can only be re-arrested when there are new charges. So, the officers had to ring their boss, I’m sure the DEC boss Mr Nason Banda who advised them to stop. We requested that if they wanted them, let them issue a call out. We will bring them to their offices. I’m short, they were not re-arrested yesterday”.
Asked whether the nolle was a surprise or not, Changano said it was not.
“No, the nolle prosequi was not a surprise. We knew this case isn’t going anywhere,” he said
And asked if a call out has since been issued to his clients, Changano responded in the negative.
“No, today on Independence day? That will purely be bad. Today is the day of freedom. We will wait,” he said.
Further asked how his clients are doing, he responded saying they are in high spirit.
“They are okay and in normal spirit because it wasn’t their fault. We were very much aware that they had no evidence from the four witnesses that testified. We knew that they were losing their case,” said Changano.
