A cybercrime officer has testified that Socialist Party President Fred M’membe owned the social media accounts that published a controversial article alleging that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President paid $20 million to buy Zambia’s silence.
Testifying before Magistrate Irene Phiri in the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court, 52-year-old Rommie Nasilele from Police Headquarters said forensic investigations confirmed that both the Facebook and Twitter accounts used to post the article belonged to Dr. M’membe.
Dr. M’membe, 65, is charged with seditious practices under Section 60(I)(C) as read with Section 60(I)(B) of the Penal Code Act, Chapter 87 of the Laws of Zambia.
It is alleged that on July 16, 2024, he published an article titled ‘Tshisekedi tells DRC Catholic Bishops about the USD 20 Million Payout to buy Zambia’s silence,’ content which the State argues was intended to incite disaffection against government.
The court heard that the case was reported to police by State House Chief Communications Specialist Clayson Hamasaka.
“In response, we made formal requests to the Bank of Zambia (BoZ) and the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) to verify the claims,” Nasilele said.
Investigations by the Bank of Zambia and the Financial Intelligence Centre found no evidence of any such transaction involving President Hakainde Hichilema.
“We then referred the case to the digital forensic unit to analyse the content and ownership of the Facebook and Instagram accounts, the forensic report confirmed that both pages belonged to Dr. Fred M’membe,” Mr Nasilele testified.
Mr Nasilele said a digital forensic report confirmed Dr. M’membe’s ownership of the accounts used to circulate the post.
Dr. M’membe, a former editor of The Post newspaper, has denied the charges and trial continues on December 16 and 17.
If he is a real MAN and not a sissy, Mmembe should own up and agree that he wrote the report and stands for its veracity. hat is what REAL men do.
So, you still don’t believe that Membe is not a real man.He does things behind men’s backs
Behind exactly whose back?
Fred M’membe has been expired for some time now. It’s polite to say that he’s very irrelevant to what he thinks he is. And to make matters worse, he will never be a president of the republic of Zambia because he’s not worth of being a Zambia leader in any way. All he now is spewing hate and seriously destabilizing peace.
The best thing he can do is just to go back to the land. Otherwise, he will never gain any respect of the Zambian society.
Hold up one sec, So Mr Fred cooked up the story and when brought before the court he will cry foul…he will tell Zambians that he is being persecuted. And some will believe him.
One thing I do know many things go on that will never see the light of day thats been going on since 1964