Cops nab ex-cabinet official
2003-01-16 09:57
Lusaka - After a nearly three-month manhunt, Zambian police finally caught up with a former top cabinet minister wanted on charges of stealing millions of dollars from government coffers, officials said on Wednesday.
Katele Kalumba, who had served as finance minister and foreign minister, was arrested on Tuesday in the northern town of Chiengi, near the Congolese border. He was flown on Wednesday to Lusaka under tight security, amid claims by police that he had used witchcraft to elude them.
Police said Kalumba faced a host of corruption charges, from giving $11.5m meant to buy corn to a businessman to conspiring with the former intelligence chief to steal cars, motorcycles and boats. He also would be charged with misappropriating $20.5m that was supposed to be used to purchase military equipment.
Kalumba was expected to appear in court on Thursday, police spokesperson Brenda Mutemba said.
Police began searching for Kalumba on November 1 after he failed to appear before a task force investigating the plunder of national resources under former President Frederick Chiluba's government.
Kalumba resigned as President Levy Mwanawasa's foreign minister in July amid allegations he illegally used more than $625 000 of government money to finance a ruling party convention when Chiluba was president.
Kalumba served as Chiluba's finance minister.
On his arrival in Lusaka on Wednesday, Kalumba told reporters he had gone into hiding because there was a government plot to assassinate him.
Acting Home Affairs Minister Ludwig Sondashi called allegations of such a plot "rubbish".
"Why should he be eliminated?" Sondashi asked. "We can't kill him because if it is true that he took money outside, then all we are interested in is for him to bring back the money. He must not have a chicken heart by hiding, but he must be strong and face the consequences."
During its investigation of Kalumba, the task force seized boats, trucks, cars and the money he reportedly withdrew from an account belonging to the Zambia Security Intelligence Services.
When police finally found Kalumba, he was wearing traditional charms from his waist, neck and arms that were intended to make him invisible, police spokeswoman Brenda Mutemba said.
Kalumba also had attached a charmed string with beads to his laptop computer so he could use the machine in the unelectrified village where he was hiding to monitor what was happening in Lusaka and to see anybody entering the village, Mutemba said.
Mutemba maintained police had difficulty arresting Kalumba because he used the charms to disappear whenever they approached. He eventually gave himself up after someone told police he was lying invisible under a shrub, she said.
Mwanawasa, Chiluba's hand-picked successor, has aggressively pressed investigations into corruption in his predecessor's administration. - Sapa-AP
- SAPA