CHELLA TUKUTA APPEALS JAIL SENTENCE
PHOTOGRAPHER Cornelius Mulenga, popularly known as Chellah Tukuta, has appealed to the High Court challenging his two-year jail term for alleging that former information minister Dora Siliya is a prostitute who sells young girls to high profile men.
Tukuta has also applied for bail pending appeal.
In his judgment, High Court judge Lameck Mwale, who sat as Lusaka chief resident magistrate, said Tukuta’s libelous statement against Siliya that she sells girls to high profile men for sex and that she was the highest of the highest professional prostitutes was extremely careless, irresponsible and deliberately calculated to injure her reputation in the eyes of right thinking members of society.
He said Tukuta exhibited lack of respect for Siliya, an elderly woman who deserved the same.
Justice Mwale found that the statement by Tukuta against Siliya was defamatory.
He found that video of Tukuta alleging that Siliya sells young girls to high profile men for sex and that she is the highest of the highest professional prostitute was an unlawful publication as it was conveyed in a manner that it became widely known by many people including the complainant herself.
“The publication lacks truth and one would not say that it is of public benefit that lies should be peddled. I do not see any privilege in regard to the statement the accused made against the complainant who was at the time serving as cabinet minister, a business woman and a prominent person,” justice Mwale said.
He said Tukuta never furnished the court with any evidence to substantiate his allegations that Siliya sells young girls to high profile men for sex neither did he prove that she was the highest professional prostitute, as he opted to remain silent in his defence.
However, in his notice of appeal, Tukuta, through his lawyers LCK chambers, said he intends to appeal the judgment dated July 15, 2021in its entirety on seven grounds.
Tukuta is challenging the sentence on grounds that the trial magistrate erred in law and in fact by refusing to refer the appellant’s constitutional reference on the constitutionality of the offence of criminal libel under section 191 of the Penal Code to the High Court even after finding that the issues raised were not frivolous or vexatious.
He said the trial magistrate erred in law and fact when he determined that the words uttered by him were defamatory in the absence of any evidence to prove that assertion.
Tukuta said justice Mwale erred in law when he acknowledged the existence of a video that was wrongfully introduced into evidence or played in court.
He said justice Mwale misdirected himself by playing and considering the contents of a video wrongfully tendered into evidence outside of the court proceedings.
“The learned trial magistrate erred in law when he held that the accused never furnished the court with evidence to substantiate his testimony thereby moving the burden of proof from the prosecution onto the accused,” Tukuta said.
“The learned trial magistrate erred in law and in fact by inferring guilt from the appellant’s decision to remain silent.”
Tukuta added that justice Mwale erred in law by sentencing him to two years imprisonment with hard labour despite the fact that he is a first offender and that there were no aggravating circumstances to warrant such a punishment.
The matter comes up on July 27, for hearing.