'Jailed Air Zimbabwe bosses wrongly convicted'

Jailed former Air Zimbabwe bosses, Peter Chikumba and Grace Pfumbidzayi, could have been wrongly convicted of criminal abuse of office after it emerged that they were, in fact, not public officers as defined by the law.

Criminal abuse of duty as a public officer is only applicable to people employed in public institutions, and the lawyers representing Chikumba now want him acquitted on the basis that Air Zimbabwe Holdings employees are not public officers.

Chikumba and Pfumbidzayi were convicted and jailed for showing favour to Navistar Insurance company and swindling the airline of millions of dollars in an aircraft insurance scam.