Home Affairs Minister Edgar Lungu has challenged people alleging that about 10 inmates at Mukobeko maximum prison died after beatings from trainee prison warders to move a motion of judicial review to set up an inquest to establish the truth concerning the death of the prisoners.
Mr Lungu who has maintained that no single prisoner died out of the alleged beatings said those making the allegations should cause the courts of law to set up an inquest so that the truth could be established.
He said government has no money at the moment to set up a tribunal as demanded by some sectors of society the challenging civil society who had the capacity to go ahead and establish a tribunal.
Mr Lungu who is also Chawama Member of Parliament was speaking in an interview with journalists after the closure of the Zimbabwe/Zambia Joint Permanent Commission on Defence and Security held at Elephant Hills Hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
The minister explained to journalists that the inmates in question died from natural causes on different dates but since their relatives were not forthcoming to claim for their bodies, the prisoners were piling at the Kabwe General hospital.
Mr Lungu who said he would address journalists on the issue this Saturday said that he has been watching with keen interest reports on private owned MUVI television adding that he had dispatched his deputy Alfridah Kansembe on a fact finding mission to Kabwe who established that the reports were unfounded.
He said that the reality on the ground was that the inmates died from natural causes on different times but their bodied had not been claimed by their relatives.
Mr Lungu said since some people did not want to believe what he, the human rights commission, Zambia prisons Commission and his deputy has been saying, he was now challenging them to move motion for a judicial review for an inquest to be set so that if it was established that the allegations were true, the perpetrators could be brought to book.
“ I want that person I saw on MUVI television to move a motion for judicial review by way of an inquest to find out the truth so that the law can take its course. I want that man to move the process so that he can tell the coroner who is a magistrate the truth he knows concerning the death of the inmates” Mr Lungu said.
Mr Lungu said that there were a lot of falsehood circulating on some online publications and it was up to the people of Zambia to judge the truth.
While government has maintained that no prison died as a result of the confusion that allegedly erupted at the prison after three prisoners escaped, some sectors of society have maintained that more than eight inmates died from beatings melted out on them by train prison warders.
“…beatings melted out on them…” What nonsense is this LT? Anyway, there is the gauntlet thrown down by the Minister. It is an opportunity for the claimants to up their claims with truth or loudly admit their false accusations. We need to reduce dark corners by having transparency in its true form.
Am sure the allegations are coming from UPND.The party is very good at championing unfounded allegations.
I wouldn’t be surprised if inmates died at Mukobeko as a result of beatings. Sad to say, but the attitude of many Zambians, public or private, towards prisoners is mostly that of “I don’t give a f%#@!”
Prisoners are mostly looked at as throw-away bums. Unless it is the likes of Dora Siliya, Sata, KK, Liato, extra. If you are poor and in a Zambian prison….GOD HELP YOU! You will be lucky to get out alive, or without debilitating diseases such as AIDS or TB.
Prisons which were built in colonial days to house, say 300 inmates, are now operating at many times over-capacity. All successive govts deserve the blame. Their approach to the welfare of prisoners and prisons has been, to be blunt, PATHETIC. The PF govt doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to address this problem either
And I thought Zambia was a Christian country!! It is horrible that those poor men are in such overcrowded hog-pens (jails.) We would not put dogs in such places, here in New Zealand. I’m serious. A person is charged with animal cruelty in this country, if their dog does not have an adequate exercise-yard. Yet you people stuff those human beings, made in Gods’ image (no matter what wrong they’ve done) into little cells. God himself will judge those in authority for such cruelty.
Were they killed or not killed? What are the relatives saying????? They must have viewed the bodies.
It is true the trainees killed 10 inmates ,that you know very well drunkard Lungu.
What madness. If they were killed then what are their names and where are their bodies? Opposition is becoming very childish these days, but games like these can be dangerous. Do they think it’s amusing to try to start civil conflict in the country?
some day those lives will be upon your heads..
I don’t understand why the government keeps lying about this issue.
All those blaming opposition, I wonder where your thinking comes from. The matter was reported with videos and names of the deceased on Muvi TV and not Hichilema or Nevers Mumba. The response from Lungu/Government to challenge a reporter to make a move for a tribunal is hypocritical to say the least. Government must fund the tribunal and not a private individual. Why is Government always bent on lying, we are really being taken for fools.
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