Court Sentences Soldier For Assault

THE Ndola Magistrate’s Court has sentenced a soldier of Kalewa Garrison in Ndola to six months imprisonment with hard labour for assaulting a traffic police officer of Kansenshi police station.
This was in a matter in which Kaluba Chiwayu, a sergeant of house number 2315 in Kalewa, was facing a charge of assault, a charge he denied.
On December 26 last year, Chiwayu is alleged to have assaulted Lydia Chandi after the latter impounded his vehicle at a road block.
Magistrate Misozi Banda on Tuesday convicted Chiwayu, 33, after the prosecution team proved the case beyond all reasonable doubt.
She said the evidence brought before the court was consistent with what occurred, although Chiwayu tried to disassociate himself from the offence.
Ms Banda, however, suspended the sentence for 12 months.
“In the evidence before me, I note that there were discrepancies in dates between the accused and the prosecution’s witnesses but the evidence is consistent with what occurred. The accused tried by all means to evade the offence but in my view, his evidence was an afterthought as I have found that he is merely trying to evade justice.
“It is, therefore, my conclusion from the evidence that a case of assault has been proved against the accused and I therefore find him guilty as charged and I accordingly convict him,” Ms Banda said.
Delivering judgment, Ms Banda said it was unfortunate the two officers from security wings were involved in the incident, when they have a mandate to defend the nation.
“However, your behavior was unacceptable hence I will give you a custodial sentence to send word out there to would-be offenders that assault in any form is a crime,” she said.
In mitigation, Chiwayu pleaded with the court not to send him to prison as he would lose his job adding that he is also the bread-winner in the family.
Facts before the court are that on the fateful day, Chiwayu’s vehicle, a Toyota Spacio registration number ABR 2051, was impounded at a road block on Kwacha Road by Allan Singombe.
Ms Chandi narrated that as she attempted to park Chiwayu’s vehicle at Kansenshi police station, the accused became unruly and dragged the complainant out of the vehicle and slapped her.

Posted by Editor on September 6, 2014. Filed under CRIME. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry