Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema

ZAMBIA ABOLISHES DEATH PENALTY

December 26, 2022:

Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema on 23 December 2022 assented to Penal Code (Amendment) Bill 2022, abolishing the law of the death penalty in Zambia.
Along with abolishing the death penalty, the Penal Code (Amendment) Bill 2022 also abolishes the offence of criminal defamation of the President. 
Zambian rights activists hailed as a “huge milestone” the decision to scrap the two British colonial-era laws.
President Hakainde Hichilema, whose party was in opposition for over two decades, had promised that he would scrap the laws if elected to the top job.
“President Hakainde Hichilema has assented to the penal code of 2022 abolishing the imposition of the death penalty and the offence of criminal defamation of the president, which has been on the Zambian statute books since (the) pre-independence era,” presidential spokesman Anthony Bwalya said in a statement on 23 December.
Human rights activist Brebner Changala said the decision was a “huge milestone in the removal of colonial laws that do not fit in the democratic dispensation of the country”.
The executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue Caroline Katotobwe said Zambians would now speak freely.
“As stakeholders we are elated that this repressive law is finally done away with. Thus, allowing citizens to freely express their views without fear of prosecution as was the case in the past,” she said.
Zambia gained independence from British rule in 1964. The southern African nation is home to 18 million people.