The State through the office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) says it is going to appeal against a ruling by High Court judge Thomson Ligowe who has acquitted four people accused of being behind the death of Kottana Chidyaonga.

Speaking to YFM in an interview, Chief State Advocate, Dr. Steven Kayuni who was a leading prosecutor in the case, said there is a serious error in law that needs to be revisited.

In the 16 paged ruling, the High Court stated that there was enough evidence to prove that Miss Chidyaonga had died of poisoning and that the suspicion pointed to the accused persons as the persons who were with the deceased Miss Chidyaonga on the fateful day.

“It is so surprising that the case in the judgement has been twisted. At first, the four accused people said Chidyawonga died of a snake bite during trial the testimony switched from snake bite to medical malpractice of the nurses and doctors at Poly Clinic,” said Kayuni.

The accused went on telling the court alleging that the clinic, had given Chidyaonga a wrong drug, namely Vecuronium Bromide, a drug used in theatre operations.

In his judgment, Justice Ligowe established that there was no snakebite and that such a theory was false.

He said the facts by the state failed to prove that Chidyaonga died of poison as there was no medical malpractice since the drug in mention is issued as a muscle relaxer and could not have caused her death.

The State paraded 13 witnesses including two re-known pathologists, Dr. Charles Dzamalala and Professor George Liomba, two medical doctors and a nurse.

“The State will pursue the matter in the Supreme Court of Appeal’s full panel on 7 grounds of appeal,” said Kayuni.

The four acquitted suspect are Timmothy Mtilosanje, boyfriend to the deceased, Dianna Bangwanji, Ekaree Chaweza and Gilbert Kamaliza.