Number 16 April/May, 2000 |
What's in the News?the LRF Newsletter |
Government sued over Police mistake
Moffat, 22 and a school boy in Chipata, Eastern Province said he was approached by eight cops on 2nd November 1998, who asked him if he knew the person they (cops) wanted. The man had allegedly masterminded an aggravated robbery in Emmasdale on 12th September in 1998. I told them that I did not know the guys they were asking me about, as I was a visitor from Chipata and I had only brought maize for sale the previous day, he said. The cops insisted that he tell them where the suspects were, later, he was ordered to accompany the police officers to Emmasdale police station for further questioning. He was told that the Criminal Investigation officer (CIO) wanted to see him over the people that committed the aggravated robbery in Emmasdale. I did not even see the CIO. Immediately we reached the police station one police officer told his friends that I should just be locked up and later taken to court, he said. Mafuta added that he was tortured at the police station where officers tortured him for six days using empty crates of mosi, iron bars and gun bats to beat Mafuta. Mafuta did not even sit for his grade twelve examinations as he was in remand prison at the time his friends were writing the exams. Christopher Chilufya was arrested in Chaisa Township after the CIO at Chaisa police post called him into his office as he was selling charcoal opposite the police post. He asked me if I knew the people who staged the robbery in Emmasdale and I told him that I did not know the guys, but the CIO instead insisted that I tell him where the guys went, he said. He said his answers did not please the CIO who later called a junior officer and instructed him to interrogate Christopher while left the office. I told the other cop exactly what I told the CIO. The following day the CIO did not even speak to me, but instead he told the driver to take me to Emmasdale police station where I was tortured and detained for 28 days, he noted. He said all the police officers at Chaisa knew him because he used to sell charcoal opposite the police post, and it could not have been a problem to tell them if at all he knew the people that the cops were looking for. They were both forced to understand the charge that they signed under orders and the statements were taken down by a D/W/ sergeant Mukanda whose number is 22911. On December 29, 1998 the two appeared before magistrate Mushibwe for mention who remanded them and the case was referred to the high court. This year on April 10 during trial, the person who master minded the robbery, Fanwell Mwanza, said he did not know the two, Christopher and Moffat and that they were not part of the group that staged the robbery in Emmasdale. During judgement High court judge Silomba acquitted the two, as they did not have a case to answer. Legal Resource Foundation Lawyer Anderson Ngulube said the state would be sued for wrongfully detention of the two people. We are definitely sueing the state its just a matter of time, Ngulube said.
| Front page | LRF opens centre in Livingstone | Letters to the Editor | Need to protect ZAmbian women & girls | Corporal Punishment still alive | Seven years of service, the LRF story | Mobile courts suggested | Children in crises offered helping hand | Around the centres | Know your rights | Government sued over Police mistake | Police clump down on brothels | Public health & you |
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wo Lusaka
residents have condemned the way police officers from Emmasdale Police
station wrongfully detained and tortured them for 60 days for allegedly
not telling them the whereabouts of a wanted person. The two, Moffat Mafuta
and Christopher Chilufya, who want to sue the Government for unlawful
detention, disclosed this to the Legal Resource Foundation (LRF) recently.