By Esther Chisola
The Lusaka High Court has declined to grant former Home Affairs minister Stephen Kampyongo’s wife bail pending appeal.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Court High Court division said Wanziya has not disclosed exceptional circumstances to warrant her bail pending appeal.
In this matter, Wanziya appealed her three year jail sentence after she was convicted for corruption.
On September 27, 2024 Kampyongo’s wife was convicted and sentenced to a three-year imprisonment on five counts of corruption.
Wanziya, however, applied for bail pending appeal on grounds that the appeal had reasonable prospects of success.
She stated that the grounds of appeal raised arguable issues regarding both the conviction and sentence.
The applicant also submitted that the sentence of three years was short and that due to the voluminous record of the proceedings, she was likely to serve a substantial portion of the sentence before the appeal was heard.
The convict said the above constituted an exceptional circumstance.
But the state objected to her application.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) contended that Wanziya had not demonstrated any exceptional circumstances to warrant her bail pending appeal.
The state further stated that a perusal of the grounds of appeal did not disclose any prospects.
However, in a ruling on application for bail pending appeal delivered by Justice Vincent Siloka on behalf of two other judges, the court ruled that there was no exceptional circumstances that had been brought fourth in the matter to meet the grounds of granting a convict bail pending appeal.
“We therefore, do not foresee any inordinate delay in hearing and determination of the appeal. We can only point to Rule 3 (1) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Court, SI no.10 of 2024 which gives a time frame of five months within which a case on appeal has to be determined,” ruled the court.
“Based on the fact that the applicant has not disclosed any exceptional circumstance and therefore, not satisfied the stringent requirements for a person of her legal status, we decline to grant the application for bail pending appeal.”
