Mundubile Release Demand Grows as Lawyers Are Denied Access at Mukobeko

38 ViewsPressure grows for Brian Mundubile’s release as lawyers report being denied access to detained Tonse leaders at Mukobeko Maximum Prison. Pressure is mounting for the release of Tonse Pamodzi Alliance president Brian Mundubile and vice president Makebi Zulu as their lawyers report being denied access to them at Mukobeko Maximum Prison. The latest developments […]

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Pressure grows for Brian Mundubile’s release as lawyers report being denied access to detained Tonse leaders at Mukobeko Maximum Prison.

Pressure is mounting for the release of Tonse Pamodzi Alliance president Brian Mundubile and vice president Makebi Zulu as their lawyers report being denied access to them at Mukobeko Maximum Prison.

The latest developments have seen calls for the detainees’ release come alongside growing international concern over access to justice and the treatment of lawyers handling politically sensitive cases in Zambia.

Citizens First president Harry Kalaba has called for the unconditional release of Mundubile, Zulu and other political detainees, saying their release should be a precondition for dialogue, national reconciliation and healing following the August 13 general election.

Kalaba has also criticised what he described as the selective application of the justice system and called for an end to what he termed the weaponisation of the law.

His intervention comes as lawyers for Mundubile and Zulu say they have been unable to consistently access their clients since the pair were transferred to Mukobeko.

Lawyer Chifumu Banda told News Diggers that the legal team had been denied access, with prison officers allegedly telling them they were acting on “instructions from above”.

Kasonde Mwenda, president of the Economic Freedom Fighters and a member of the Tonse Pamodzi Alliance Council of Presidents, has separately said State Counsel Sakwiba Sikota and State Counsel Chifumu Kingdom Banda were turned away twice while attempting to see their clients.

The 18 opposition figures, including Mundubile and Zulu, are facing treason charges linked to an alleged militia and remain in custody at Mukobeko awaiting court proceedings.

The dispute over access comes against a backdrop of growing international attention to the case.

Lawyer Milner Katolo said last week that the United Nations, SADC, the African Union and church mother bodies had become involved in efforts aimed at finding an amicable resolution to the treason case.

Katolo said the involvement of the organisations could help bring the opposing sides together for discussions and national healing.

The Commonwealth Lawyers Association has now also issued a strongly worded statement on Zambia’s post-election situation, saying developments in the country raise serious concerns about access to justice, judicial independence and the safety of lawyers.

In a statement dated September 7, the association said the developments it had reviewed, taken together, raised serious concerns that the rule of law had been undermined.

The CLA specifically called for urgent assurances that lawyers should be able to act for their clients safely, independently and without improper interference, regardless of their clients’ political affiliation.

The association also referred to the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, which require governments to ensure that lawyers can perform their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference.

The CLA statement did not take a position on the merits of the August 13 presidential election or favour any political party. Instead, it said its intervention was focused on the rule of law, access to justice and lawyer safety.

The widening concern comes as some Tonse figures are simultaneously calling for political dialogue.

Senior alliance figure Binwell Mpundu has appealed directly to President Hakainde Hichilema for peace, saying Zambia’s politics had become “primitive and dirty” and urging political leaders to sit down and agree on a better path for the country.

“I’m taking that first step, I’m reaching out to President HH for peace,” Mpundu said.

The combination of the calls for dialogue, demands for the release of detainees and international concerns over access to justice now places the handling of the Mundubile case at the centre of the wider debate over Zambia’s post-election political environment.

For the Tonse alliance, the immediate issue remains the continued detention of its leaders and whether they can have unhindered access to their lawyers as they prepare to answer the treason charges.

For government, the case presents a growing test of how it responds to demands for reconciliation while allowing the legal process to proceed.

The government and Zambia Correctional Service have not, in the latest reports, publicly responded to the specific allegation that Mundubile and Zulu’s lawyers have been denied access at Mukobeko.