The Kasama Magistrates’ Court found 12 fish sellers guilty of illegally possessing fish and sentenced them to two months in prison.
When they appeared before KASAMA Magistrate JOE SAMBOKO on Friday, the inmates from the Kasama and Mpulungu districts pleaded guilty to the charge.
On December 28, 2022, the 11 women and a man were charged with unlawful possession of 27 bags of fresh and dry fish because they lacked proof of the fish’s provenance.
After Fisheries authorities stopped the minibus they were riding in from Mpulungu to Kasama, this happened.
In their mitigation, the convicts begged the court to be merciful toward them, with some stating that they were widows or double orphans and that, if they were sent to prison, their relatives, whom they care for, may suffer.
Magistrate SAMBOKO, a Kasama local, acknowledged that he had taken the inmates’ mitigation into account but insisted that he was still upholding the legislation that the government had established.
Fishing has been prohibited by the government since the first of December till the first of March 2023.
