Court Reporter
Former Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Walter Mzembi has been acquitted by the High Court on charges of criminal abuse of office linked to the donation of four LED public viewing screens.
Mzembi, who returned from self-imposed exile in South Africa last year and spent more than a year in remand prison, had been granted US$1,000 bail by High Court judge Benjamin Chikowero on May 4 pending judgment.
Prosecutors had alleged Mzembi unlawfully facilitated the transfer of the screens, bought with State funds, to Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries, United Family International Church and Zion Christian Church without Treasury approval.
Delivering judgment, Justice Benjamin Chikowero ruled that the State had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Mzembi committed the offence.
The court heard that accountability for Government assets rests with the permanent secretary and not the minister.
Justice Chikowero said the prosecution had failed to establish that Mzembi had direct responsibility over the assets in question.
Mzembi had been accused of unlawfully donating the public viewing screens during his tenure as Tourism Minister.
However, the court found that the evidence presented by the State was insufficient to secure a conviction.
