State charges ex chief spy for breaching security Act
…..faces imprisonment for a term of not less than 15 years
By DAVID KANDUZA
FORMER Zambian intelligence chief Xavier Chungu, who served as director general of the Zambia Security Intelligence Service (ZSIS) from 1991 to 2001, has been charged under section 4 of the State Security Act
The Act states that:
(1) Any person who has in his possession or under his control any code, password, sketch, plan, model, note or other document, article or information, which relates to or is used in a protected place or anything in such a place, or which has been made or obtained in contravention of this Act, or which has been entrusted in confidence to him by any person holding office under the Government, or which he has obtained or to which he has had access owing to his position as a person who holds or has held such office or as a person who is or was a party to a contract with the Government or a contract the performance of which in whole or in part is carried out in a protected place, or as a person who is or has been employed by or under a person who holds or has held such an office or is or was a party to such a contract, and who-
Communication of certain information
(a) uses the same in any manner or for any purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the Republic;
(b) The Laws of Zambia communicates the amate any person other and pronounces his duty to communicate it;
(0) fails to take proper care of, or so conducts himself as to endanger the safety of, the same; or retains the sketch, plan, model, note, document or article in his possession or under his control when he has no right or when it is contrary to his duty so to do Is also the comply with any law directions with regard to the
shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of not less than fifteen years but not exceeding twenty-five years.
(2) Any person who has in his possession or under his control any sketch, plan, model, note or other document, article or information, relating to munitions of war and who communicates it directly or indirectly to any person in any manner for any purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the Republic shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of not less than fifteen years but not exceeding twenty-five years.
(3) Any person who receives any code, password, sketch, plan, model, note or other document, article or information, knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe at the time when he receives it that the same is communicated to him in contravention of the provisions of this Act, shall, unless he proves that the communication thereof to him was against his wish, be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to the penalty prescribed in subsection (1).
(4) Any person who communicates to any person, other than a person to whom he is authorised by an authorised officer to communicate it or to whom it is in the interests of the Republic his duty to communicate it, any information relating to the defence or security of the Republic shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of not less than fifteen years but not exceeding twenty-five years. or the purposes of subsection (4), “information relating to the defence and security of the Republic” includes (but without derogating from the general or the
ordinary meaning of that expression) information relating to the movements or locations of le Defence Force or the Police Force, the steps taken to protect any vital installations protected places, and the acquisition or disposal of munitions of was
(As amended by Act No. 17 of 1973)