Zambia court orders passport release for Banda to seek medical check-up abroad

A court in Zambia has ordered prosecutors release the passport of former president Rupiah Banda so that he could seek a medical check-up in South Africa, the Zambia Daily Mail reported on Tuesday. The former Zambian leader has not traveled outside the country following his arrest over alleged corrupt activities and prosecutors grabbed his passport to stop him from leaving the country as part of the bail conditions. High Court Judge Anesi Bobo ordered the prosecutors to release Banda's passport to enable him to travel to South Africa for his medical check-up after his lawyers filed a consent order for the variation of bail conditions. "Based on counsel of the applicant and the respondent and upon reading the affidavit in support of the application sworn by Rupiah Banda and consent of the parties herein, it is hereby ordered and directed, that the passport be released," the high court judge was quoted as saying by the paper. The former Zambian leader is expected to travel to South Africa on Oct. 4 and return on Oct. 24, the high court judge said. According to Banda's physician, the former leader has been receiving medical treatment since 2007 and that he has been undergoing regular reviews since then but has not done so for the past two years. Banda, who ruled Zambia from August 2008 to September 2011, was arrested last year following the lifting of his immunity after the current regime accused him of various corrupt activities. He has since been slapped with one count of abuse of authority in relation to a Nigerian oil deal and another charge of concealing nine light trucks.