UPND Kanyama Ward 10 Councillor Brighton Bilumba has appealed against his one year six months sentenced slapped on him by Magistrate Felix Kaoma on Monday for theft involving K53,600.

And Bilumba has asked the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court to grant him bail pending his appeal in the Lusaka High Court.

Magistrate Kaoma convicted and sentenced Bilumba to 18 months’ imprisonment with hard labour for stealing the said money from the Lusaka City Council (LCC).

Bilumba was facing one count of theft by servant contrary to section 272 and 277 of the penal code chapter 87 of the laws of Zambia and had pleaded not guilty in April last year.

Particulars of the offence were that Bilumba, 39, between December, 2017, and January, 2018, in Lusaka, being a person employed by the local government as a civic leader stole K53,600 cash, the property of the Government of the Republic of Zambia.

In his ground of appeal, Bilumba stated that his conviction was unsafe and against the weight and totality of evidence.

Arising from this, he has asked the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court to grant him bail, pending his appeal in the Lusaka High Court, saying his appeal has a higher chance of success.

In an affidavit in support of summons for bail pending appeal filed in Lusaka Magistrates’ Court criminal registry, Monday, Bilumba claimed that his appeal would not be prejudicial in any way to the State if the court granted him bail.

He added that if the High Court was to uphold the sentence, he would serve the sentence imposed on him by the High Court.

Bilumba observed that the State would not be able to compensate him for serving the sentence imposed on him if the High Court was to allow the appeal.

He also argued that he was not a flight risk because his family resides in Lusaka, adding that he was ready to meet the bail conditions that the Court may impose.

“I am ready to furnish sureties to the satisfaction of the Court and I believe that this Court can grant me bail pending appeal with reasonable conditions seeing the circumstances of the case that no loss to government was occasioned for which I can fail to attend court. I reasonably believe that my appeal has higher prospects of success and considering the time that appeals take to dispose,” stated Bilumba.

The matter will come up on February 15, 2019, for hearing of the bail pending appeal.