President of the Socialist Party in Zambia Fred M’membe has said that Zambia Police’s response to what he described as the very serious accusations of torturing former president Mr. Edgar Lungu’s barber, Mr. Shabby Chilekwa, raises very serious concerns and is unacceptable.
In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Dr. M’membe said that if the treatment subjected to Mr. Shabby Chilekwa isn’t evil then evil has no meaning.
Dr. M’membe said that to date, the Human Rights Commission has not said anything on this very serious and very urgent matter and added that if they are not careful, this regime will soon find itself trapped in the painful politics of impunity.
Below is the full statement
The Zambia Police’s response to the very serious accusations of torturing former president Mr Edgar Lungu’s barber, Mr Shabby Chilekwa, raises very serious concerns and is unacceptable.
Zambia Police spokesman says they will not respond to allegations of torturing Mr Chilekwa by his lawyers and leave that to the Human Rights Commission. Mr Chilekwa’s lawyers say “he was been badly beaten and repeatedly tortured and has lashes on his back, his ears are injured, has blood in his urine and has serious bidy pains”.
If this isn’t evil, then evil has no meaning. To date, the Human Rights Commission has not said anything on this very serious and very urgent matter. If they are not careful, this regime will soon find itself trapped in the painful politics of impunity.
We should all speak out against torture, an abhorrent denial of human dignity. Torture is an egregious abuse of human rights that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Our laws unequivocally prohibit torture in all instances. This is so because torture seeks to annihilate a victim’s personality and denies a human being of his or her inherent dignity.
There’s no felony offence or national security considerations that can justify torture and other forms of cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment. And its pervasive consequences often go beyond the isolated act on an individual to be transmitted through generations, leading to cycles of violence.
We condemn torture as one of the vilest acts perpetrated by human beings on their fellow human beings.
Fred M’membe
President of the Socialist Party
Unfortunately some people are celebrating this…. paying PF in their own coin. Remember vengeance has no end. If PF injured you yesterday forgive… if they stole simply investigate and arrest them according to the law. Some people losing jobs or being tortured could have relatives who voted for the Upnd. Mistreating people will just plant an seed that may be impossible to get rid off.
Respect to you Mr. President. All the way the Zambian people will be with you come 2026. Viva Socialist Party.
@ Deja Vu
I agree with you….am non Partisan and the majority of people doing construction on my site in Livingstone are die hard UPND….the problem with HH is that he has so much hate…don’t you miss the Politics of Michael Sata(MHSRIP)……..no vegeance just full of jokes
@ Saulosi… people who expected persecution got instead jobs in St Michaels government. Unfortunately our constitution forbid people like Guy Scott from the presidency, we ended up with ECL ….
Emotion intelligence is lacking, even with Human rights organizations.
Cant agree with the Socialist President more. The Police should treat this matter with transparency
Mr M’membe,,,This is the problem we have as a nation, you know the procedure to take if those allegations are true. Don’t do something to earn public sympathy but do something to help the ailing life in cells. You have found time to write an article but you can’t find time to visit him at the cells, at least we should hear that you were denied entrance, that is leadership. We no longer need talking leaders, we need action leaders. I give 2% for this effort.
There’s always a break point. One day baal will cross the red line. That’s when people will assert their authority. When that line is crossed, then Zambia will learn that you don’t run a country like baal. There will be no time to read the lips of the human rights jokers.
This political vaccum we are witnessing is causing police to behave like sole law enforcers. A way to force information out of an individual by thunder by fire is extremism that needs to checked and quenched. Bally must pay. Bemba lives matter. Zambian lives matter.
When you are evil your life is shortened. Soon these upnd members will start dying one by one
Thanks Dr mmembe for this issue well articulated it appears our president HH has two faces ,he started very well with reconcilliating messages ,and all of us were amazed and here is apresident, with all the injustices he suffered he has chosen peace,
ALas here we are witnessing evils of one party state, he is literally quite , and the route the security agences are undertaking against their fellow citizens is all wrong.
zambians are not interested in this kind of enterprise,
And why did you take DEC, ACC and other investigating wings to state house? you are giving un due pressure to these agences to find crimes to former leaders, we are not against investigations but the pattern and style of opperation leaves much to be desired.
so all these issues were started by one party, the…
Not true Kaizar. Europeans never died one by one despite visiting horror on black Africans during the Slave Trade.
BMW is evil, he is not fit to tie Nelson Mandela’s shoe laces.
These are accomplices to the looting of the country, they must be tortured kuli ba shongololane! Lungu must wait for his turn, he must ask Gen Miyanda what he did in his trousers when Gen Chitomfwa danced Fwemba on his gulumuthu, pratatataaaa in his combat!
Just like it is unacceptable for you to invade paying tax since 1980.
@Kaizar Zulu can you tell the police how they will be dying one by one. Otherwise they need to visit you for clarification, you have started your threats again.
KZ is too bitter these days
The problem we have in Zambia is that Bembas are tribalist. I just learnt that my own sister , who is Tonga, was fired for being Tonga , accused of being a UPND sympathizer . She worked in the private sector. So how does work in private sector and Politics meet? What influence or connection exactly? Even if this is now history I ve been broken for life. I now wonder what more of those Tongas, Lozis,Luvales who were directly employed by government? Im not in Zambia but this has given me a true picture of the tribal cleansing PF/Bembas engineered & executed. There has to be pay back somehow somewhere this can’t jst disappear-No!