By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE –
THE Lusaka magistrate’s court has dismissed an application by three Bulgarian nationals who attempted to have their indictment quashed on grounds that it is defective.
Chief resident magistrate Joshua Banda instead ordered Milko Stayanov Kostadinov ,44, Hristo Ivanono Donkon ,39, and Abdallah Alwe Albatti,29, to take plea yesterday.
The trio is facing three counts of stealing money through the hacking of Automated Teller Machines (ATM) in Lusaka.
The three, who have been denied bail, have since pleaded not guilty to all the counts and would commence trial on January 10, 2014.
The State is expected to bring about 13 witnesses in the matter.
When the matter came up yesterday, defence lawyers raised a preliminary issue for the indictment to be amended or quashed claiming it was defective.
They said that the charge sheet was defective in that it did not specify the kind of gadgets that their clients were found with as a general and broader term was used in the particulars of the offences.
The defence lawyers told the court that gadgets were known by their names but in the case of their clients, the prosecution had not specified what kind of gadgets the trio was found with.
