STATE IS LYING – MUNDUBILE, MAKEBI
…Deny ever appearing in any court for treason, categorically refute allegations by state that they were part of any syndicate threatening national security.
BRIAN Mundubile, his running mate Makebi Zulu and 16 other treason accused have disputed the State’s claims that they had appeared in the Kabwe Magistrate Court on August, 30, September 15 and 30 stating that the remand warrants the State is relying on to justify their detention are in fact falsified.
And Mr Mundubile, Mr Zulu and the 16 other treason accused have categorically denied allegations by the State that they were part of any syndicate threatening national security but are Zambian citizens arrested by the State for merely exercising their civil and political rights.
Mr Mundubile, Mr Makebi and 16 others have told the Lusaka High Court that they have never appeared before any court in Zambia on the dates reflected in the remand warrants the State has presented before the court.
“We thus categorically deny the suggestion or implication that we were duly brought before a court of competent jurisdiction on dates appearing on the purported remand warrants. That we have been advised by counsel on record and we verily believe that a Police Officer does not have power to order the admission of an ordinary suspect to a correctional facility without a court order,” Mr Mundubile and Mr Zulu have submitted.
In an affidavit in reply to the State’s opposition to their constitutional petition, Mr Mundubile and Mr Zulu argue that detention paper trail had not established that they were lawfully brought before a court when the purported court appearances never occurred.
The document, which identifies the petitioners as being held at Mukobeko Maximum Correctional Facility in Kabwe, names the Attorney General, Harrington
Akushanga and Fredrick Chilukutu as respondents.
At the centre of the dispute are remand warrants referred to in the respondents’ affidavit under an exhibit identilied as
“SH2,” which documents purport that Mr Mundubile, Mr Makebi and all the 16 others appeared before the Kabwe Magistrate Court for treason charges and were taken to Mukobeko Maximum Correctional Facility after the matter had
been adjourned.
The petitioners have specifically denied appearing before any court in Zambia on August 30, September 11 or indeed
September 15, 2026.
They have submitted that their lawyers have advised that accepting such documents as evidence of compliance with detention procedures, without actual court appearances, would elevate paperwork above the substantive question of whether their detention was lawful.
The challenge also raises allegations of detention in an incomplete section of Mwembeshi Correctional Facility, prolonged isolation and delayed access to medication.
Harry Valden Findlay, Ezra Tolopa, Dickson Tembo and Victor Muzyamba have submitted that they were held in the incomplete section of the facility without a lawful warrant from August 12, 2026.
They also question a document described as a “Prisoners’ Receipt and Order of Detention,” which they say was used to admit them to Mwembeshi Central Correctional Facility on August 17.
The petitioners argue that the document relied on the Prisons Act of 1965, which they say was repealed and replaced by the Zambia Correctional Service Act No. 37 of 2021.
Tolopa, Tembo and Muzyamba separately dispute the basis for their arrests on terrorism allegations, saying their training in Russia was confined to physical protection and defensive driving.
They allege that law enforcement officers confiscated their training certificates on or about August 1, 2026, when they were apprehended. The three say they were subsequently held incommunicado from August 1 to August 15.
Their account challenges any suggestion that the Russian training constituted preparation for terrorist activity, although the respondents’ detailed evidence concerning those allegations is not reproduced in the reply.
Findlay, the 14th petitioner, alleges that he was held incommunicado from August 9
to August 19.
He also states that he was only given access to his medication on August 12, after becoming critically ill while being held in the incomplete section of Mwembeshi Correctional Facility:
Another group of petitioners – George Kangwa Chisanga, Patrick Mwansa, Trevor Mwamba, Francis Mulenga, Brazil Soko, Jackson Mutyoka, Bernard Chanda Chewe, Richard Banda, Emmanuel Mulenga, Darius Mwila and Simon Phiri alleges that they were held incommunicado between August 14 and August 17.
Credit: Daily Nation