Chiluba’s wife imprisoned

LUSAKA – The wife of Zambia’s former president was convicted on Tuesday of receiving stolen property and money from him and sentenced to 3½ years hard labour.

Regina Chiluba was found guilty of receiving N$3 million in cash and goods that prosecutors said Frederick Chiluba stole from his official residence while he was president from 1991 to 2001.
Regina and Frederick Chiluba married after he left office.
She joins a stream of Frederick Chiluba’s close political, military and business aides who have either been sent to jail already or are awaiting sentencing for abuse of office and theft.
Chiluba himself is awaiting sentence later this month on a case of theft by a public servant involving N$5 million. He is also jointly charged with two former executives of a defunct Zambian bank for stealing N$4.8 million from the Zambian government.
Chiluba was Zambia’s first democratically elected president following 27 years of one-party rule. He had promised to introduce political freedoms and overhaul Zambia’s debt-ridden, centrally planned economy. Instead, he oversaw corruption-ridden privatisations that failed to improve the lives of Zambia’s 10 million residents.
The extent of the corruption became apparent after Chiluba left office. He went on trial in Zambia in 2003, accused of 169 counts of corruption, abuse of power and theft, but was declared unfit to stand trial on the grounds of ill health.
Zambia’s attorney general then took the case to London. London’s High Court in 2007 found Chiluba guilty of siphoning off $46 million in public funds, much of which was laundered through British banks.
Chiluba has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
– Nampa-AP