EX-MINISTER JAILED AND FOREFEITS PROPERTY

Former Labour Minister, Austin Liato has been handed a two year sentence with hard labour in the 2.1 billion kwacha case by a Lusaka Magistrate court.

This is in the matter in which Mr Liato was facing one count of being in possession of property suspected of being proceeds of crime contrary to the forfeiture of proceeds of crime Act number 19 of 2010 of the laws of Zambia.

Principal Magistrate Aridah Chulu handed the former minister the jail term when he appeared for judgment today.

Mr Liato has also been ordered to forfeit to the state, the respective money as well as the farm where he had buried the money.

Last year, the former in the Rupiah Banda regime buried the 2.1 billion Kwacha cash in two steel trunks under a thick layer of concrete slab in a highly fortified and electronically fitted structure at his farm in the outskirts of the capital, Lusaka.

COPPER PRICES SET TO INCREASE TOWARDS YEAR-END

International copper prices have been projected to rise up to 9,300 dollars by end of this year.

This follows e three-month delivery contract for copper climb by as much as 1.1 percent to 7,816 dollars per tonne today.

Mike Keenan, currency strategist at Absa Bank, says the favourable copper prices will work to the advantage of copper producing countries, like Zambia.

Mr Keenan has further predicted a 1.7 per cent strengthening of the kwacha, whose exchange rate against the dollar, he says will be 5,100 per dollar by mid-year.

He has cited the projected rise in copper prices on the global market, as reason the kwacha’s predicted strength.

ZAMBIA TO ACT ON AL-BASHIR, CLAIMS MALAWI PUBLICATION

While Malawi is dithering on the matter of Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al Bashir, the MALAWI TODAY has reported that Zambia has opted to act over Sudanese President, Omar Al-Bashir.

The on-line publication has quoted a senior official in the Zambian government that Mr Al-Bashir will be arrest once he sets foot in Zambia.

Malawi’s President Joyce Banda has asked the African Union not to invite Mr Al-Bashir to a heads of state summit for the continental organisation.

However, the request has not been heeded as Mr Al-Bashir still remains on the list of heads of state expected to attend the AU summit in Lilongwe in July this year.

Meanwhile, Elise Keppler, international justice senior counsel, at Human Rights Watch, says, as an International Criminal Court member, Malawi should arrest him and not host him.

Mr Al-Bashir is an international fugitive wanted on charges of genocide and other heinous crimes committed in Darfur.