The defense counsel representing Former Lusaka Province Minister Bowman Lusambo has described the matter as an abuse of court proceedings, in which seven houses and a subdivision farm, number 609 in Chamba Valley, deemed tainted are facing conviction based forfeiture.
In opposition, the respondents have asked for a stay of the application through their skeleton argument, describing it as an abuse of court proceedings.
They noted that the subject property is a matter whose proceedings are pending before the higher court of appeal.
Another basis of their submission is that the forfeiture should not be of the entire property but the value equivalent to the actual benefit derived from the commission of the offense.
The second interested party, Mukuka Mukonge, has appealed for a stay of the execution of the forfeiture application. He contends that he entered into a lease agreement with Lusambo between 2018 and 2023, whose lease agreement has expired, and therefore, he now assumes ownership of the subject property.
However, the state has submitted before the court that the properties in question are tainted and must be forfeited to the state.
They further argue that the pendency of an appeal case does not affect the application.
Magistrate Davies Chibwili has adjourned the matter to October 28, 2025, for ruling.
In August this year, the Lusaka Magistrate Court sentenced Bowman Lusambo to three years imprisonment with hard labor in two counts of possession of property suspected to be proceeds of crime.
-Diamond TV