Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Mary Kachale and Michael Goba Chipeta, a lawyer representing Maxwell Namata, Cashgate convict and suspect in the ongoing Cashgate case involving former budget director, Paul Mphwiyo and 18 others were yesterday involved in some tough talk over Supreme Court appeal that Namata has made.
When his turn for cross-examination of the first state witness Leonard Kalonga came, Chipeta said he could not proceed with cross-examination as an appeal for stay of proceedings against Namata had already been filed at the Supreme Court yesterday morning.
Namata accuses the state of double jeopardy, the prosecution of a person twice for the same offence, and wants the charges dropped.
He was already convicted and sentenced to an eight-year jail term for separate Cashgate charges and he is serving.
Chipeta said the documents on the appeal were with the court registrar and the clerk had assured him that they would be ready the same on Thuersday.
He then asked the court to stop his cross-examination pending the arguments for the appeal.
But Kachale said she was deeply saddened that the manner in which Chipeta had brought the application was not procedural as he knew how a notice on the same was supposed to be filed.
She said the state had not been served with the appeal documents and that meant even the two working-day notice procedure was not followed.
Kachale also said the application had been made in bad faith and the timing was wrong considering that Chipeta was retained on February 3, days before the February court sitting and it was surprising that he was making an application then.
“We think the application has been made in bad faith but if it is just pending for now, we may not have to object,” Kachale said.
However, the use of bad faith and bad timing seemed to have displeased Chipeta who heatedly said he is only making the application as an advocate for Namata and it was unfair for the DPP to talk about bad faith.
“The Honourable DPP doesn’t know how my office works. I don’t have one file in my office. And this case is bulky and needs more time and the quickest that I would do to prepare the application was overnight for submission this morning. If the DPP needs time to respond, she should just say it but not talking about issues of bad faith and timing,” Chipeta said.
Kachale and the rest of state side looked surprised with Chipeta’s reaction but just let it pass paving way for Judge Esmie Chombo’s ruling.
In her ruling, Chombo said it was well understood that Chipeta would not be able to cross-examine the witness until the Supreme Court appeal is heard and she ruled that cross-examination move to the lawyer for another accused.
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