We were brutally beaten and picked up like criminals – HH
United Party for National Development ( UPND) President Hakainde Hichilema has disclosed that he was brutalised by heavily armed state police while picking him and 5 others from Chimbokaila prison to Mukobeko Maximum prison yesterday.
Mr. Hichilema said he was bundled like a bandit even when he did not object to the heavily armed state police’s action of transferring him to Mukobeko Maximum prison in Kabwe’s Central Province.
He says it is unfortunate that he is being ill-treated when he is not a criminal.
Mr. Hichilema has since called on the country to remain strong as his vision for a better Zambia is not broken.
He says he remains unshaken even when State Police continue humiliating and torturing him and called on the country to remain strong and demand for real democracy anchored on respect for freedom of association and assembly as well as fundamental principles of respect for human rights.
And the UPND President has said that as at last night he was thrown into a cell that was heavily congested but that he enjoyed the company of inmates who have continued calling on him to uphold democracy, develop the country once he forms government.
He however says what is more worrying in prison cells is the congestion and a high likelihood of contracting diseases.
Mr. Hichilema said once in government he will work round the clock to ensure that prisons are made better places as even condemned inmates are equally human beings that deserve better treatment.
Meanwhile, the UPND President says he is ready to give up his life if that is what it meant to fight for democracy and economic development for the country.
He said Zambia’s democracy has regressed in the recent past, but the country must sacrifice along with him in order to restore it.
UPND President Hakainde Hichilema and 5 others who have been slapped with treason charges were yesterday moved by heavily armed state security using a chopper from Zambia’s capital city in Lusaka’s Chimbokaila prison to the Central Zambia, Mukobeko maximum prison.
This was done without any court authorisation as earlier on Lusaka Magistrate Greenwell Malumani had ordered the state keep Mr. Hichilema in Lusaka Province.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people are making their way to Central Zambia to go and visit the UPND President whose High Court appearance for trial is not yet known, though Lusaka High Court judge Judy Mung’omba has set Monday as a day for the application to have the treason charge quashed on grounds that Hichilema did not commit any offence.