A Zambia Air Force soldier has been taken to court in a matter he is accused of obtaining over K1,000 on pretext that he would help a woman get a job in ZAF, when in fact not. Edwin Sawiba, 33, of Twin Palm in Lusaka, is charged with obtaining money by false pretences.
Sawiba is jointly charged with Lazarous Bwembya, 33, a driver of Ng’ombe township.

It is alleged that on November 3 last year, the duo allegedly obtained K1,110 from Julia Jere by falsely pretending that they would help her get employed in ZAF, when in fact not. The two, who are on police bond, are expected to take plea today.

Meanwhile, a Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) officer yesterday told the court that he received information that four Chinese accused of being in possession of 55 counterfeit Automated Teller Machines(ATMs) cards were allegedly attempting to flee the country. Anderson Situmbeko, a senior investigation officer, said he was informed that the four Chinese were making efforts to leave Zambia a week after being given police bond.

This is in a case four Chinese are accused of possession of 55 counterfeit ATMs cards and 10 point of sale machines. They are facing six counts of unauthorised access to intercept data and possession of property suspected to be proceeds of crime. The suspects are Fang Hua ping, 44, a businessman, Yu Fei, 36, businessman, Zhuang Wei, 35, contractor, and Luo Tao, an interior designer, all from Kamwala South.

Through their lawyer, the four Chinese had applied for bail after their police bond was revoked, but the state objected to the application on grounds that the suspects were allegedly a flight risk. Magistrate Sylvia Munyinya then ordered an inquiry into the matter to determine whether the suspects were indeed a flight risk.

In his testimony, Mr Situmbeko said the four suspects were given bond on November 15 last year.
“We received information that some of the people we have put on police bond were making efforts to leave the country,” he said.
Based on the alert that the four Chinese were allegedly trying to flee the country, he decided to revoke their bond which was granted to them about a week earlier.

At this point, DEC prosecutor Lewis Kandela then asked Mr Situmbeko to further explain why he was compelled to revoke the police bond.
“In the past, we had incidences where we give people bond and they decide to flee. In the past, we have had dockets of people who run away after being given bond,” Mr Situmbeko said.

He told the court that while the suspects were on bond, he went to look for them at the lodge where he had arrested them from