By Esther Chisola
The Economic and Financial Crimes Court (EFCC) has refused to grant convicted former Lusaka Province minister Bowman Lusambo bail pending appeal for failure to meet the threshold for admission to bail pending appeal.
In this matter, Lusambo applied for bail pending appeal at the EFCC, High Court Division, arguing that his appeal against conviction and sentence had reasonable prospects of success. This followed his conviction was sentence to four-years imprisonment with hard labour for being in possession of properties suspected to be proceeds of crime and fraudulently acquiring public property.
Lusambo submitted that his application had high prospects of success because the appeal raised new questions of law which were in the public interest and that the court below did not evaluate the evidence properly.
But the state objected to his application, contending that Lusamba had not demonstrated any exceptional circumstances to warrant him bail pending appeal.
And in a judgment delivered by judge Vincent Siloka in chambers on behalf of two other judges on February 05, 2025, the court stated that it had not found anything new in Lusambo’s arguments.
“In our considered view, novel issues and matters relating to public interest are for the court of appeal to determine and in any case, we do not find anything novel about the grounds of appeal,” judge Siloka stated, adding that Lusambo’s appeal had not met the threshold for him to be granted bail pending appeal.
“Having considered the evidence in totality, it is our firm view that the application for bail pending appeal cannot be granted because the applicant has not met the threshold for us to admit him to bail pending appeal,” ruled the court. “This application for bail pending appeal is declined.”
