THE CONCEPT OF IDENTIFICATION PARADE AND DEFENCE OF ALIBI IN THE ZAMBIAN LEGAL SYSTEM
AUTHOR – COUNSEL COLLINS NKUMBWA, ESQ.
CIP, LL.B, LL.M, AHCZ. ASCZ, PHD CAND.
LECTURER OF LAW AND COMMISSIONER FOR OATHS
PRINCIPAL AUTHOR’S EMAIL – COLLINSNKUMBWA4@GMAIL.COM
BEST CITATION – COUNSEL COLLINS NKUMBWA, THE CONCEPT OF IDENTIFICATION PARADE AND DEFENCE OF ALIBI IN THE ZAMBIAN LEGAL SYSTEM, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 6 (10) OF 2026, PG. 43-47, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344.
ABSTRACT
The Zambian legal system is premised on the concept of adducing evidence to establish both the commission of the offence and linking the accused to the alleged offence. This requirement necessitates elimination of the danger of false complaint and false accusation. This paper has established that an identification parade is vital in law of evidence to establish whether the accused person is the person who committed the offence. This paper has discussed various factors that are considered necessary to determine whether the identification parade can be said to be fair to an accused person. Similarly, the paper has established that an identification parade is critical when it comes to the defence of alibi. The prosecution has the onus to establish whether the accused was present at the crime scene during the day and time when the offence was committed. The judicial precedents take cognisance of the weaknesses of this type of evidence as illustrated in this paper.
Keywords – Identification, Alibi, Admissibility, evidential weight, honesty and reliability.