THE Supreme Court has upheld a 20-year jail sentence slapped on a commando convicted of aggravated robbery of a motor vehicle from a taxi driver. Sitting in Ndola, the Supreme Court judges dismissed Minyoi Mundia’s appeal against his conviction and sentence.

Facts before the court are that on May 30, 2013, Mundia, of Mushili Commando Unit in Ndola, robbed Steven Nkhuwa of a Toyota Fun Cargo registration ACT 8972 and K40 cash. Mundia threatened to use or used actual violence against Mr Nkhuwa. This was after Mundia hired Mr Nkhuwa’s taxi to a place near Mufulira Road.

The court heard that when Mr Nkhuwa reached a place called Twelve Miles, Mundia asked him to stop the car so that he could answer the call of nature. When Mundia returned to the car, he went to the driver’s seat, pointed a pistol at Mr Nkhuwa and ordered him to hand over the car keys. Mr Nkhuwa identified Mundia during an identification parade. In his defence, Mundia rejected the evidence against him stating that he got the vehicle because the driver abandoned it and ran away with his change.

He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour by the Ndola High Court. Unhappy with the verdict, Mundia appealed to the Supreme Court arguing that the lower court erred in law and fact when it accepted a confession statement which he made involuntarily. And delivering judgement yesterday, Justice Jones Chinyama said the Supreme Court could not blame the lower court’s rejection of Mundia’s explanation.

He said the Supreme Court also shared the lower court’s disbelief that the taxi driver could abandon his vehicle just like that in exchange for a mere K100. “A reasonable person, particularly one of the appellant’s standing as a soldier, would be expected to have exercised appropriate prudence by immediately alerting sentries at the gate of the camp rather than drive a strange vehicle into the camp which was itself a security risk,” Justice Chinyama said.