Court Schools Cops on Public Order Act after Acquitting Miti and Others
The Lusaka Magistrate Court set some instructive notes on the Public Order Act as it acquitted Alliance for Community Action Director Laura Miti, opposition PeP president Sean Tembo, singer Fumba Chama, popularly known as Pilato over the $42 million fire tenders saga protest.
Magistrate Mwaka Mikalile gave the police something to think about as they implement the problematic Public Order Act.
In her ruling, Magistrate Mikalile noted that there was no basis upon which the police could stop the demonstration when the organizers had properly notified the law enforcement officers about the protest and they were not a security risk.
She plainly said that the Constitution guarantees the right to assembly for the citizens.
Magistrate Mikalile said that that police should have concerned themselves with the group that went to disrupt the demonstration at parliament buildings and not the peaceful protesters.
She noted that the protesters had followed all the requirements to the letter to hold their peaceful protest.
The Magistrate has since urged the police to act in a professional manner.
“In this circumstances I do hereby dismiss the charge. I accordingly acquit all the accused persons in compliance with the criminal procedure code and set them at liberty forthwith”, she said.
The six accused persons who were facing a charge of disobeying lawful orders have been set free by Principal Resident Magistrate Mwaka Mikalile during her ruling on a case to answer stage.
Meanwhile Miti pledged to keep up her activism even it meant demonstrating again.
“We are very glad that the court has delivered a very pronounced judgment,” she said.
And Tembo said the police should be ashamed of how zealously they wrongly applied the law.
“We believe that this particular matter is a victory, not only to us but all the Zambian citizens who have been denied their Constitutional rights to undertake demonstrations and we are hopeful that going forward the police are going to be ashamed of violating the rights of citizens when they know they don’t have any case in any particular instances,” he said.
And a lawyer for the acquitted group hoped that the ruling had come from a higher court.
“The problem of our police, they think that police stations are their kingdoms that they can do anything in disobedience of the law. They are the same people who make it seem that they act on instructions from the politicians when in most cases the politicians are very innocent,” Mweemba said.