COMPLAINT AGAINST POLICE OFFICERS THAT BRUTALISED AND ASSAULTED ME
136/A
Chandwe Musonda Road
Villa Elizabetha
Lusaka
The Secretary,
Police Public Complaints Commission
Head Office
Independence Avenue
P.O.Box 50997
Lusaka,
Zambia
RE; BRUTAL ATTACK AGAINST MYSELF BY POLICE OFFICERS; STEPHEN SIMWENDA, BRIAN CHIPANGO AND OTHERS
I am Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba.
I served as Zambia’s High Commissioner to South Africa. I also served as Zambia’s Ambassador to Ethiopia.
I also served as Zambia’s Permanent Representative to the African Union and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
I also served as Permanent Secretary for Northern Province, Eastern Province, Western Province and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services.
Before that I served as Official Spokesperson and Administrator, for ten (10) years, to Zambia’s Second President, Dr. Frederick Chiluba.
I am currently a member of the Opposition, the Patriotic Front and I hold a position of Member of the Central Committee and Deputy Chairperson of Information and Publicity.
I am also a person of known and fixed abode in Lusaka.
MY COMPLAINT
In accordance with the Police-Public Complaint Commission Act no.18 of 2016, Part III, Section 15-20, I bring the following complaint to your attention.
On Wednesday, 14th June 2023 after 15:30hrs, about 12 men in three unmarked motor vehicles stormed a Car Wash, Jamie’s Car Wash, based on Mosi-O-tunya Road in Chilenje/Woodlands area where I was washing my car.
They immediately approached me and demanded that I accompany them.
I had no way of knowing who these men were especially that they were not in police uniforms, and their cars were not marked as police cars. Further, they had no or did not show any Identification cards as policemen.
Although I recognized one officer as belonging to the Criminal Investigations Department, the unit based at Police Service Headquarters, I couldn’t tell if this was a police operation.
I asked politely why they didn’t issue a Police Call-out, or phone me.I also requested if they could allow me to phone my wife and my lawyer.
This request was met with brutal attacks as they were determined to extract me like an armed and dangerous criminal.
They also didn’t seem to worry about the great public humiliation they were subjecting me to as this was in front of many members of the public and those washing cars witnessing the highly humiliating scenario and ordeal.
Despite offering no resistance and trying to cooperate with them, I was greatly man-handled, brutalised and they later bundled me in one of their cars.
They also proceeded to confiscate mobile phones from some members of the public that were filming the violent scene.
Three people including a pregnant woman were also picked for filming this public incidence.
During this ordeal I sustained injuries on my right thumb, my right wrist, my right shoulder, my left shoulder, the right side of my neck and upper jaw. My tooth was also knocked out.
When we arrived at Police Service Headquarters, I was not informed of what case I was being investigated for.
I was kept for two hours at one of the offices on the first floor of Police Service Headquarters, in an office that acted out as an interview room. I was denied access to my family and my lawyers.
I was also denied access to medical attention despite repeatedly and formally requesting especially for the sharp pain I was experiencing on the right side of my neck.
During interrogations, they seized all contents of my wallets that included my identification cards, NRCs, Bank Cards and Driver’s Licence.
The officers also wanted me to surrender passwords to my mobile phone that they had earlier confiscated.
When I refused to do so I was told that I was failing to cooperate and they began to threaten me with unknown consequences and they promised to punish me.
I was immediately hand-cuffed without cause like a dangerous criminal and later dumped at Emasdale Police Station Police Cells.
The Police Cells are 3 small rooms separating male and female. There were 30 inmates in the small space.
Even when my lawyers and my family located me later in the night, they were denied access to me until the following day after 10;00hrs on the strict instructions by the officers who handled me from Police Service Headquarters.
This was clearly an abduction.
I remained detained there for almost three days.
To clearly cover up the harm inflicted on me, the lead police officer of the operation manufactured assault charges against me, a fraudulent activity that also needs to be subjected to immediate criminal investigations.
MY RIGHT TO INNOCENCE VIOLATED
Articles 18 and 28 of the Republican Constitution of Zambia guarantee me protection of my human rights and to be accorded fairness to the due process of the law. The Constitution also grants me the right to be deemed innocent until proven guilty by a competent court of law.
I was therefore surprised that I was treated as a dangerous criminal by officers keen to abuse the process and the law, and to cause psychological trauma, humiliation and bodily injuries to me.
Further, my repeated requests to be accorded medical access and medical attention while I was in detention were denied.
I was later arrested on charges of alleged forgery and publication of false information, matters that I have strongly denied.
These charges emanated from a press conference held by the Director Spokesperson at the Ministry of Information and Media, Thabo Kawana on Friday, 8th and Saturday, 9th June 2023 shortly after the documents became public.
During this press conference and before any investigations were done, he deliberately singled out those he alleged that they had published the documents.
He emphatically stated that the Patriotic Front through their alleged pages; Patriotic Front and Grindstone Television Facebook pages had published forged documents to cause public alarm. He also named Socialist Party President, Dr. Fred M’membe as onother that had published the documents.
Contrary to these false assertions, the documents were earlier published by many Facebook pages and personalities including prominent members of the UPND and other social-media pages.
This investigation and arrest was therefore predetermined, targeted and directed at me and others to use the false assertions that as a Patriotic Front Member of the Central Committee and as Deputy in charge of Information and Publicity, that I may be associated with those pages despite the strong and available evidence that I did not author, publish, or circulate the documents under investigations.
At the time of writing my complaint letter to you, my bank Cards, my driver’s Licence, my Identification documents have not been released to me and other personal items found in my wallet, despite them not being connected to the case at hand and despite being released on police bond, have not been given to me.
I have brought this complaint against the three officers but also against the whole group for their role especially in harrassing members of the public and confiscating their property during the operation.
I hope that my complaints will be investigated and remedial measures will eventually be done.
Find attached here to my Medical Report and support documents related to the injuries I suffered.
Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba
LUSAKA
19th June,2023
CC; The Director General
Human Rights Commission
36871, Independence Avenue
Lusaka
