from ARNOLD MULENGA in Lusaka, Zambia
Zambia Bureau
LUSAKA, (CAJ News) – THE imprisonment of a key figure of the main opposition in Zambia is seen as the further erosion and the ruling party’s influence on the judiciary.
On Tuesday, the Lusaka High Court in the capital issued a bench warrant on Patriotic Front (PF) Secretary General, Raphael Nakacinda, ordering that he starts serving a one-year and six-month jail term.
The warrant was issued in absentia as he was attending to another matter at the Lusaka Magistrates Court.
The High Court upheld the 18-month conviction and sentence imposed on him by a lower court.
He was found guilty of stating that President Hakainde Hichilema was summoning judges at his private residence to coerce them into frustrating the PF’s legal battles and establishing a one-party state.
Judge Anne Mary Kachenga Malata Ononuju, one of the few judges appointed by Hichilema, issued the warrant.
Thandiwe Ketiš Ngoma, one of the fiercest critics of the administration of Hichilema and the United Party for National Development (UNDP) denounced the conviction of Nakacinda.
“When a government begins to arrest critics, jail opposition leaders, block opposition rallies and threaten journalists, it is not showing strength. It is showing fear,” she said.
Ngoma noted Zambia’s constitution guaranteed freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of political participation.
“Yet these rights are being chipped away every day,” she said.
“These are not the actions of a confident leader. They are the actions of an administration desperate to cling to control, even as the ground beneath it shifts.”
Hichilema and UPND came to power in 2021 after defeating PF, then led by Edgar Lungu, now late.
Critics accuse Hichilema’s government of “hijacking” the judiciary and having critics arrested.
The government has also enacted some cyber security laws seen as targeting critics.
Given Lubinda, interim PF president, said, “The agenda is to cripple the party.”
However, Nakacinda (46) is not new to controversy.
At the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court, he is appearing on charges of hate speech for utterances allegedly bordering on tribalism.
– CAJ News