THE Lusaka High Court has acquitted former State House press aide Amos Chanda in a case where he was sentenced to one year imprisonment for stealing and burning court evidence.

Judge Situmbeko Chocho ruled that the Lusaka Magistrate’s Court erred in both law and fact, and grossly misdirected itself when it relied on discredited and contradictory evidence to convict Mr Chanda.

Judge Chocho reversed the decision of the lower court and set Mr Chanda, who is part of the UPND media team, free immediately.

The Lusaka Magistrate’s Court last year jailed Mr Chanda after finding him guilty of theft of court documents.

However, he appealed against the decision, raising nine grounds of appeal,all of which have succeeded, earning him freedom.

“I find that all the nine grounds of appeal have succeeded. The lower court relied on discredited evidence contained in a device that was tampered with. The lower court ignored crucial evidence from three court officials who testified that the record in question was merely missing and not stolen,” the judgment reads.

The judge found that the custodians of the purportedly stolen record told the magistrate that the same document was not stolen.

“Who then is the complainant here? None,” the judge said.

She also ruled that the recording of a person purporting to be Mr Chanda, alleged to have confessed to accessing and burning the document, could not be relied upon.

The judge noted discrepancies in one of the witness statements, which indicated that the recording was made 20 hours before the accused arrived at Sarovar Hotel, creating serious doubt.

“The burden of proof is beyond reasonable doubt and lies with the prosecution from start to finish. I find that the respondent (State) did not prove this to the required standard,” she said.

The judge further found that the trial court itself acknowledged that the accused did not steal the record, but stated that he could have.

“This creates serious doubt in my mind. Since he did not steal the record, he therefore could not have destroyed it, and I therefore reverse the conviction in count two as well.”

In May last year, Mr Chanda was sentenced to one year in prison and fined K5,000 on two charges, stealing a case record belonging to the Government of Zambia and willfully destroying it to prevent its use as evidence in a judicial proceeding.

The court had heard that Mr Chanda had a conversation with individuals, including Intelligent Mobility Solutions board chairman Walid El Nahas and former Road Transport and Safety Agency Chief Executive Officer Zindaba Soko, during which he allegedly admitted to obtaining and burning the court record.

(Mwebantu, Monday,).