|
|
|
|
| National |
| Sheriffs impound Chronicle vehicle |
|
by
Mc Donald Chapalapata, 30 September 2003
-
19:46:27
|
Sheriffs last Friday impounded a vehicle belonging to The Chronicle newspaper following the newspaper’s failure to pay an out-of-court settlement amounting to K400,000 in a case where the paper is reported to have defamed Water Development Minister Dumbo Lemani.
Editor-in-Chief of the Lilongwe based newspaper Rob Jamieson confirmed the development in an interview on Monday but said the car, an Isuzu KB registration number DA 656, does not belong to the newspaper but his wife, Pushpa.
Jamieson described the development as politically motivated and pushed the blame on Lemani.
“This is politically motivated. I think they just want to shut us down. We did not have problems when Lemani was out of the country, but there is pressure just a week after his arrival,” said Jamieson.
He said the paper proposed to the courts to pay Lemani in instalments of K25,000 per month but that there has been no response so far.
The paper carried a story where it alleged that Lemani was involved in a multi-million kwacha Petroleum Control Commission (PCC) corruption case.
Lemani denied playing a part in the seizure of the car, saying he has not even been briefed by his lawyer Kalekeni Kaphale on the matter.
“There is no politics here. He defamed me and we agreed to settle out of court because Jamieson had no money. But since April he has not paid me [anything] [so] what do you think the lawyers would do?” said Lemani.
He said he has no time in chasing ‘little money’ from Jamieson when he is pursuing some defamatory cases with South African newspapers. He also uttered several unprintables.
Kaphale said in a separate interview on Monday that they agreed that Chronicle Newspapers would pay K350,000 for defamation and K50,000 as costs of the action, none of which has been paid.
“By consent, we allowed them 90 days to pay the amount but the whole 90 days elapsed without paying the amount. We wrote them several letters reminding them that they should pay but they have been ignoring those, so we had no choice but to ask the Sheriff to help us get the money,” said Kaphale.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
