Former finance minister Ignatius Chombo has accused state prosecutors of abusing his status and deliberately delaying his trial in a case in which he is accused of corruption and abuse of office.
Through his lawyers, Professor Lovemore Madhuku and Tungamirai Muganhiri, Chombo told the court that the state is deliberately delaying his matter.
“The state has grown a tendency of grouping ‘prominent cases’ and not. I feel that the accused person’s status is being abused,” said Madhuku.
The court sat to get further submissions from Chombo’s defense lawyers but state requested for a postponement saying the investigating officer was not yet done with ‘some information’ needed.
State requested for further two weeks but Chombo’s defense lawyers opposed the application saying they will only accept it on conditions that the time needed for state investigations be trimmed down to a week.
“State is not clear on what they are asking for. State has been asking for more time of which they just have to respond on our challenge for remand. The state is abusing the status of the accused person,” argued Madhuku.
However, state then said that they will file a response to the defense’s application on 24 May 2021.
