By Daily Revelation Correspondent
The safety and well-being of opposition leader Brian Mundubile, his deputy Makebi Zulu and sixteen other political detainees held at Mukobeko Maximum Correctional Facility has become a matter of grave concern amid confirmed reports that they are being accommodated in a general population holding facility alongside inmates convicted of serious offences including murder, aggravated robbery and rape.
Tonse Alliance spokesperson Dr Lawrence Mwelwa has called for the immediate relocation of the 18 detainees to a secure holding facility, warning that their continued incarceration among hardened criminals exposes them to potentially serious physical danger.
Dr Mwelwa said prisoners housed within the ‘general population’ could face threats ranging from intimidation and extortion to assault, beatings, stabbings and other forms of violence common within overcrowded hostile prison environments.
”The State has a duty of care over every citizen it places in custody. Brian Mundubile, Makebi Zulu and the others have not been convicted. Their security must be always guaranteed,” Dr Mwelwa, also an academician and author said.
He noted that during the incarceration of then opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema, now President on treason charges in 2017, special measures were put in place to ensure his safety, including separate accommodation arrangements.
“President Hichilema lived outside the general population along with his bodyguard at Mukobeko under President Edgar Lungu and he has consistently said ‘do not arrest and detain people without exhausting investigations’ so what has changed now,” asked Dr Mwelwa.
Dr Mwelwa also cited historical precedents in Zambia where political figures including founding President Kenneth Kaunda were subjected to forms of restricted detention or house arrest under varying political circumstances.
Another example is that of former vice-president the late Lt General Christon Tembo held under house arrest in Makeni Lusaka while awaiting trial.
Dr Mwelwa described the continued detention of Mundubile and his co-accused as a matter demanding urgent domestic and international attention given its apparent illegality.
”Sixty-one days of detention demands a national and international outcry. Sixty-one days is not forty-eight hours. There is a world of difference between forty-eight hours and sixty-one days,” Dr Mwelwa said.
Dr Mwelwa further argued that if prosecutors were unable to proceed with the matter, appropriate legal mechanisms should be utilised rather than maintaining prolonged illegal detention beyond 48 hours condemned by President Hichilema himself in days past.
”If you cannot try and convict Brian Mundubile, Makebi Zulu and the other political detainees, then discontinue the matter and set them free through a nolle prosequi or withdraw the case until sufficient evidence exists to support prosecution. Justice delayed is justice denied,” he said.
Mundubile, Zulu and the other detainees are expected to appear before a three-judge tribunal in Lusaka on Wednesday, 28 October.
The Director of Public Prosecutions and the Attorney General have both been joined to the matter in what legal observers are describing as one of the consequential treason-related cases to come before Zambia’s courts since Independence.
Political analysts say the case has become a significant test of constitutional rights, due process and the administration of justice, with growing scrutiny over the duration of detention and the conditions under which the accused are being held.
As the legal battle enters another critical phase, supporters and family members continued to express concern over the safety of the detainees at Mukobeko, insisting that the State bears full responsibility for their protection while in custody.
