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Judge Dorothy Degabrielle has reserved her ruling to 10am tomorrow on the defense’s plea to have the judge recuse herself from Thom Mpinganjira’s judge’s bribery case.
After the case resumed this morning, Patrice Nkhono, a lawyer representing the business mogul asked the Judge presiding the case to recuse herself as he she is being accused of improprieties.
Nkhono alleged that there were certain offers which were made to Mpinganjira with a view to achieve favorable sentence for him.
Nkhono claimed that the defense has evidence inform of text messages and recordings of phone calls which have been transcribed.
According to Nkhono, he has made available to the court, a text message coming from judge Degabrielle and another message from the President of judges in which they were talking about the case.
The lawyer added that, this is not the first time for the accused to make such allegations.
He has told the court that in August 2020, two judges who testified in the case also approached him.
He added that Mpinganjira reported the issue to the police and ACB but he has not heard any response.
In response to the recusal plea by the defense team, Reyneck Matemba has said that the allegations that the accused has brought are based on hearsay.
According to the Matemba, the accused person never spoke to Judge President Kalembera and judge Degabrielle.
Matemba has described the allegations as malicious, wild and meant to derail the case.
Matemba has also questioned why Mpinganjira has made the application now when he was approached in February 2021.
He has also told the court that the accused person indeed lodged a complaint at ACB but it was dismissed because it was baseless.
Matemba says in the complaint, Mpinganjira accused Justice Potani and Judge Mike Tembo of the same.
On the issue of the phone recording, Matemba argues that the recordings do not contain voices of Judge Degabrielle and the judge President Kalembera but it contains voices of third parties.
