By 
Amos Chanda, a former Presidential Press Aide in the Edgar Lungu administration, has been sentenced to 12 months in jail with hard labour for stealing court documents, which he is said to have later destroyed.
The Lusaka Magistrates’ Court has also fined Chanda K5,000 for destroying the case record.
This sentence comes nearly two months after Chanda and two others were sentenced to seven months of simple imprisonment for obstructing Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) officers from conducting a search at his residence.
Read more: Court jails ex-President Lungu’s media aide, Chanda, to 7 mon
On Friday, Magistrate Wishimanga said the stealing of the court record case could not have been choreographed by the State.
The trial Magistrate noted that there was no direct evidence that the accused went to the Magistrates’ Court to get the record.
However, according to the recording, when the matter relating to the said case record was about to start, Chanda was heard saying the document was not there and were in ashes, all the 100 plus pages handwritten.
“How did the accused know the pages and that it was handwritten? Whatever record accused took, it was still an offence. The other accused Soko even called it mafia style,” she said.
Chanda in mitigation through his lawyers pleaded for a non-custodial sentence, he had a family to look after and that being a public figure, and a conviction alone was punishment enough.
Magistrate Wishimange praised Chanda for being in the best behavior throughout the proceedings, having not missed a single session.
“As a lesson to you and would be offenders, I sentence you to 12 months with hard labour in count one and in count two, I sentence you to a fine of K 5,000 to be paid forthwith or in default three months imprisonment,” she adjudicated.
It was alleged that Chanda, between May 12, 2020, and October 1, 2022, acting together with others unknown, stole a case record number CRMP/001/2020, a property of the State which he later burnt.
The missing record pertains to the matter in which the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) entered a nolle prosequi where Chanda was jointly charged with Intelligent Mobility Solutions Board Chairman Walid Ei Nahas and former Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) boss, Zindaba Soko, for corrupt practices and possession of property suspected to be proceeds of crime.
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