The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) says his office has put priority on ensuring that it recovers assets that were stolen from the Zambians people.
By Geoffrey Phiri
Director of Public Prosecution, Gilbert Phiri, said his office is working hard to ensure that all property that was allegedly stolen is given back to the people.
He explained that his office is not violating anyone’s rights in doing so but is merely working according to the laws which are stated under the forfeiture of proceeds of crime law.
“Other than prosecuting offenders and sending them to correctional facility with the hope that they will reform, we want to dispossess them of property that does not belong to them because it was stolen from the Zambia people. In doing that we are not violating anyone’s rights” he said.
He said the law gives power to his office to dispose of any property that does not rightfully belong to them.
He has since commended the judiciary for setting up the economic and financial crimes court that has reduced the time within which such cases can be heard and disposed of.
He said the five months period that has been allocated to hear such cases will help to quickly dispose of the cases.
Mr. Phiri said this when he paid a courtesy call on the Northern Province administration in Kasama.
And Mr. Phiri has bemoaned the escalation of smuggling and human trafficking cases in Northern and Muchinga Provinces.
“We know it is being aided by our people and being facilitated even by government officers, we are aware of it. But you can be rest assured, honorable minister, that we will invest more resources to ensure that we curb this crime.” He said.
And Northern Province Minister, Leonard Mbao, praised the NPA for its interventions in decongesting correctional facilities in the country.
He said the issue of congestion is one of the biggest problems that the province is experiencing in many correctional facilities.
He has however bemoaned the porousness of the borders in the province which is resulting in high crime rates in such areas.
Earlier, Senior State Advocate for Muchinga, Obert Siankanga, indicated that the National Prosecution Authority has signed an MoU with the judiciary and the legal aid board for setting up of camcourt which will enable judicial officers to handle bail applications within the correctional facility.
He explained that this will see a magistrate and prosecutors go to correctional facilities to handle some applications.
Mr. Siankanga said this will help to decongest the correctional facilities and help to improve standards in these facilities.
ZANIS
