Zambia’s opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema, who’s facing treason charges, said Friday he had been moved from a prison in the capital Lusaka to a maximum
security jail in a small town.
Hichilema was arrested in April for allegedly failing to give way to President Edgar Lungu’s motorcade and has so far been
held in detention for two months.
A magistrate court on Thursday ruled that he should face trial for treason in the High
Court, dismissing requests by his lawyers to throw out the charge.
“We can confirm that we have been moved to Mukobeko Maximum Prison in Kabwe. We arrived a few minutes
ago,” he said in a Facebook post.
“We don’t know what is happening but we are not bothered by processes,” he added.
According to his lawyer, Jack Mwiimbu, armed police officers at the Lusaka prison had earlier bundled Hichilema and five co-
accused into a van and drove them to the city airport,
Mwiimbu described his transfer to Kabwe, about 150 kilometres north of Lusaka, as
‘illegal’.
“There was a court order that they should be at Lusaka prison but they have gone against it. He was forcibly removed from
Lusaka prison,” Mwiimbu told reporters outside Lusaka Central Prison where Hichilema had been detained since April 11.
The treason case against Hakainde
Hichilema, a wealthy self-made
businessman who turned 55 last Sunday comes after he made a fifth unsuccessful
bid for the presidency last year.
He has, however, refused to recognise Lungu as president and has challenged the
narrow poll defeat in court.
