Kaunda may go to jail
2005-01-25 14:05
Lusaka - Zambia's founding president Kenneth Kaunda may be imprisoned for 14 days if he fails to pay a legal bill of over $600 000 from lawyers who defended him in several cases, local newspapers reported on Tuesday.
The lawyers want the former president to be jailed for contempt of court because he had allegedly agreed to settle the legal bill, the state-run Zambia Daily Mail report said, quoting a letter from the lawyers.
The attorneys have also suggested that Kaunda should forfeit his salary and allowances which he receives from the state so that the money can go towards settling the legal bill, the newspaper said.
Kaunda has disputed the bill saying the lawyers represented him in several cases in the 1990s for free, in a show of solidarity against what he claims was a harassment campaign orchestrated by his successor Frederick Chiluba.
Kaunda, who held the presidency from Zambia's independence from Britain in 1964 to 1991, earlier this month denied ever contracting a lawyer when Chiluba attempted to deport him on the ground that he was a Malawian.
The lawyers have also suggested that the properties belonging to the former ruling party, the United National Independence Party (UNIP), should also be seized and sold in a bid to recover the fees, the state-run Times of Zambia said.
The lawyers defended Kaunda in several cases including when he was arrested for unlawful assembly and when he challenged the results of the 1996 presidential election won by Chiluba.
Kaunda was barred from contesting the polls through a constitutional amendment passed by the Chiluba government in order to stop citizens with foreign parentage from standing for the presidency. - AFP
- SAPA