Ex-Zambia National team striker Dudley Fichite’s appeal against a 25 year prison sentence by the high court turned sour when the Supreme Court sentenced him to life imprisonment.
In 2016 Fichite was convicted by the magistrate’s court and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment by the high court for defiling his 9 year old niece who had spent a holiday at his home two years earlier.
Dissatisfied with the conviction and sentence Fichite appealed to the Supreme Court on grounds that the high court had erred in law and in fact when they found him guilty of the offence.
However Supreme court Judges Gregory Phiri, Jones Chinyama and Elizabeth Muyovwe dismissed his appeal and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Born June 29, 1978, Fichite is best remembered as being top Scorer in the Zambia premier league in the year 2001 bagging 17 goals (excluding post match penalties) for his club Green Buffaloes.
He earned 16 international caps for the country and is best remembered for his performance at COSAFA under then Chipolopolo Coach Jan Brouwer.
He was extremely instrumental later on in Zambia’s campaign for world cup qualification under Coach Kalusha Bwalya.
Among his most memorable goals for the national team, is his first-half goal in the 4-0 thrashing against Seycheles in the 2006 campaign for world cup qualification in Germany.
Other goals in that game were scored by Gift Kampamba , Harry Milanzi and Numba Mumamba.
Another notable goal was against Zimbabwe where talented winger Numba Mumamba managed to dribble through the defence and pass unselfishly to Dudley Fichite, who never missed such opportunities.
He retired from playing soccer in 2008 after playing briefly in Angola for the outfit Primeiro de Agost.
At the time of his arrest he was assistant coach for army sponsored side Riflemen and worked as a staff sergeant in the army/Dail Mail.
