Lusaka — THE Lusaka magistrate's court has deferred to August 14, 2009 judgment in the case in which former president Fredrick Chiluba is charged with theft of public funds.

Chiluba is jointly charged with former Access Financial Services (AFS) directors, Aaron Chungu and Faustin Kabwe with theft of public resources.

Chief resident magistrate, Charles Kafunda, who sat in for Ndola High Court Registrar, Jones Chinyama, yesterday postponed the judgment to consider Chiluba's written submissions which were filed in recently so that they could be incorporated in the judgment. Mr Chinyama had initially set July 20 for the judgment. Chiluba's Press aide, Emmanuel Mwamba, who confirmed the development said Mr Chinyama called for the meeting in light of the consent judgment to allow Chiluba to submit his submissions late.

Mr Mwamba said State prosecutor, Mutembo Nchinto, said he would not respond to the former head of State's submissions because the submissions he had given the court on former AFS directors were enough.

In another development, the Lusaka magistrate's court has granted a K500 million bail to 12 persons jointly charged with former Ministry of Health human resources officer Henry Kapoko for theft of public funds.

Magistrate Exornobit Zulu said in his ruling yesterday that the 12 had been granted bail on condition that each of the accused deposited an amount of K500 million of movable assets.

He said each of the accused should surrender their passports and other valuable documents to the court and should be reporting to the officer-in-charge at Woodlands Police Station every Friday between 10:00 and 12:00 hours.

The 13 pleaded not guilty to 20 counts of theft by public servant contrary to sections 272 and 277 of the Penal Code chapter 87 of the Laws of Zambia. This is in a case in which Kapoko is jointly charged with Zukas Kaoma, principal accountant, Nobert Peleti, assistant director of operations, Evaristo Musaba a former chief accountant at the ministry, Vincent Luhana, a senior accountant and director of health, Chrispin Sichone.

Others are Esau Banda a former internal auditor, internal auditor Justine Phiri, assistant internal auditor Christopher Bwalya, Roy Maswenyeho, principal accountant, Luka Makeche, a senior accountant and Algonquin Management consultants Naomi Chawinga and Masuzyo Chawinga.

"All the accused shall remain in custody until they meet the conditions of the bail," Mr Zulu said. He said the accused would also need to have two working sureties holding managerial positions and should be residents of Lusaka. And Mr Zulu has deferred the bail application by Kapoko to July 20 because the defence did not adduce enough evidence to substantiate why Kapoko should be granted bail.

Mr Zulu said granting bail depended on the gravity of the case and the defence should show cause why Kapoko should be granted bail after he allegedly attempted to flee the country.