Former Zambia president Frederick Chiluba was on Monday acquitted of all charges in what was seen as a landmark corruption case against an ex-African head of state.
Lusaka magistrate Jones Chinyama said the prosecution team had failed to prove the case against Chiluba, who ruled Zambia for a decade after ousting liberation hero Kenneth Kaunda in multiparty elections in 1991.
"I find that the accused is not guilty on all counts," Chinyama said.
In 2007, British judge Peter Smith ordered Chiluba to pay $58 million to the Zambian Treasury to compensate for money he stole while he was in office.
The ruling, which was hailed as a turning point in Africa's battle against official corruption, was made in Britain after Zambian officials filed a civil case there hoping to recover properties and other assets owned by Chiluba and his associates in Britain and other European countries.
Chiluba, a former trade unionist turned politician and hailed as a democrat after helping to dismantle Kaunda's socialist single party rule which lasted 27 years, was charged with stealing nearly $500,000 of public funds.
His wife Regina was jailed in March for corruption for three and a half years.
Chiluba says he is the victim of a political witch hunt mounted by his successor Levy Mwanawasa, who died in 2008 in France, after suffering a stroke.