THESE ARE NOT LEGITIMATE CRIMINAL CASES, SAYS DR M’MEMBE
…as Police fail to proceed with ESPIONAGE case
Lusaka, Friday, December 1, 2023 ( Smart Eagles)
Leader of the opposition Socialist Party (SP) Fred M’membe has disclosed that police are not ready to proceed with any case that they have arrested him for.
Police were today supposed to proceed with the espionage case that the opposition leader stands charged with.
In an interview with the press, Dr Fred M’membe’s lawyer, Simon Mwila said he received a call from senior police officers alerting him that they were not ready to proceed.
“The matter where Dr Fred M’membe is alleged to have committed an offence of espionage was supposed to take off this morning. Unfortunately, we were called early in the morning as a legal team by senior police officers from Force Headquarters who indicated to us that they are not ready for us despite them having signed on the police bond for the client saying he should appear today before the chief resident magistrate in court 3 at subordinate Court in Lusaka,” he said.
“So we wait to hear for any information that is going to come and we will be going to the police Headquarters to extend the bond that was granted to our client.”
And Dr M’membe told the press in an interview that Police arrested him in a hurry.
He wondered how much time they need to proceed with the matter.
“The police are not ready to proceed with the so called espionage case. I don’t know how much time they need to be ready because this issue has been on for a long time. They arrested me in a hurry, they could not even give me bond, they had to lock me up,” he said.
“Now they are not ready to proceed with any case. By any case I mean all the cases they have arrested me on so far, none of them has proceeded. Why arrest if they are not ready to proceed? If they have not completed their investigations why arrest someone?”
He said the cases he stands charged with are political cases meant to cripple opposition.
“Again, it shows abuses on the criminal justice system, to fix political opponents. These are not legitimate criminal cases. These are political cases to try and cripple the opposition, to try and weaken the opposition. To try and intimidate us. This is not a recipe for governing well,” he said.