[ringtonesmannq]

Zambia's former president, Frederick Chiluba, is cleared of embezzling $500,000 during his 10-year presidency.

More...

[Z1IRo4Ap]

On 17 Aug 2009
Frederick Chiluba, the former president of Zambia, walked free from court after a criminal trial that many hoped would be a watershed for African justice.
Chiluba was cleared of embezzling $500,000 (£306,000) during his 10-year presidency after a judge ruled that the funds could not be traced to government money.
Anti-corruption campaigners expressed surprise at the verdict and said they would consider an appeal. They had billed the prosecution as the first of an African leader for corruption in his own country.
The Lusaka court delivered its verdict following a six-year trial prolonged by Chiluba's health problems. Observers in the courtroom broke into applause before the magistrate, Jones Chinyama, finished reading the 3,400-word verdict.
"After studying the evidence presented to this court, I'm left with no doubt that the prosecution failed to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt," Chinyama said. "I find that the accused is not guilty on all counts."
Chiluba, 63, swiftly denounced the trial as the work of "imperialists". Two years ago he lost a civil court case in London that found he plundered around $50m (£30m) from state coffers to help fund extravagant spending on designer clothes and shoes. But whereas that case was judged on the balance of probabilities, the criminal trial demanded proof beyond reasonable doubt.

Spam links removed by admin - lovely google job re information though - afraid I am still banning your though...

[jeepgrandch]

What a surprise.

On a flight to Lusaka in 2005 I was upgraded to Business Class and I was sat next to a UK lawyer who was working on this case. Not that he spoke about it - I just guessed which case he was on.