ZAMBIA: TWO POLICE OFFICERS TO BE HANGED FOR KILLING SUSPECT IN CUSTODY

April 28, 2022:

Zambia High Court has sentenced two police officers to death by hanging for killing a suspect in custody, Zambia Daily Mail reported on 12 April 2022.
The two convicts; Mastone Simweene and Muyunda Mufungulwa were sentenced to death following the murder of Lemmy Mapeke.
The appeal by the duo against the sentencing in the Court of Appeal was also dismissed due to lack of merit, Daily Mail reported.
In 2018, the two officers assaulted Mapeke by beating him with a baton and a metal bar on the buttocks while rubbing teargas in his eyes during interrogation leaving him unable to walk or even drink water.
The officers reportedly also refused to allow the victim’s mother to give him food before he succumbed to the injuries.
In their defence, the officers’ defence disclosed to the court that the victim was killed by a mob and not them as suggested.
They added that the accusations were merely afterthought and a conflict of evidence and that Macha Police Post did not have teargas and a baton at the time of the incident.
The High Court judge presiding over the case has ordered that the two police officers should be hanged by the neck until pronounced and certified dead by a medical practitioner.