 Okay. Good evening to all our dear audiences. We are here at Richard catching with police station in Kupuata. This is where one of our members, Thomson Perry, has been detained for the last 13 days after a big fight with our lawyers. I think our lawyers went to court and obtained a debt for habeas kopas hearing. We have seen the police quickly releasing him on some charge. So I'm here with various leaders, members of the central committee, members of parliament, and the leader of the opposition in parliament Honourable Brand Mundovilleb is just going to speak to this matter. We are glad that Thomson has finally been released after almost 14 days. Honourable Mundovilleb, just give you a reflection over this and the other case because we have other bloggers that were earlier picked and one was picked up yesterday Rizwan Peteo from Petaoke and you know my case you are aware about it and that of Andy. Thank you. Thank you very much and it's a good evening to all countrymen and women. Yes, on one hand we are very happy that Thomson Perry is finally out. By way of background most of you would remember that he was picked up together with another blogger by the name of Andy Luchinde who was also detained for a couple of days before he was released. Komredimano Muamba was also arrested alongside Andy and Thomson and now we have one more gentleman Rizwan Peteo who was picked up from Chipata from Petaoke. Up to now we are not sure where he is being detained. We've been running up and down since morning because in the case of Thomson he's been held for the past 13 days, 13 days and yet President Dhaka in the Ichilema has repeatedly said he will govern this country using the rule of law. Now this gentleman has been tortured by keeping him in custody for two weeks without being taken to court. Our lawyers have been fighting there night to the extent that they ended up going to court to obtain another court through hebea scopas which they presented to the police. Even then the police had the audacity to defy an order of court. They ignored the order of court and did not even come to to, they did not bring or present the suspect to court. We are just surprised we're called that he's now been released. So it's very clear that we are in a country where the police can ignore the courts with impunity. Court orders no longer matter in this dispensation. It's very very unfortunate and countrymen and women I think this is a major source of concern. Where are we going to if the people that are supposed to administer justice because the police are part of the justice system can ignore court orders like the case is in the case of Thompson. So we've been reading reports of Komed Wamba. I think there's a report by the U.S. that talked about the decline in the human rights record in Zambia. It talked about torture, it talked about a pitray arrest, prolonged detentions and others I was reading earlier in the paper where some minister was reacting disputing the contents of that particular report. But here's an example. Thompson has been detained for 13 days. He's been charged now, he's been charged with forgery and publication of documents after 13 days of being incarcerated. So it is indeed very sad that our country has declined to these very low levels and we've continued talking. I hope now that the Americans who are friends of this government, now that they've published a report, I hope that the president as he comes back from Globetrotting, he will now sit down to look at the report that his friends have published and maybe act on it. In that in which case we expect to not see cases of Thompson being incarcerated for 18 days. So it is very very sad indeed and Zambians should wake up and not be told the falsehoods about how this government is governing according to the rule of law. So the report by the U.S. government actually left out a number of things. Bad as it is, but of course we are glad that it pointed out the various human rights violations which were witnessing every day, the arrests, the abuse arrests, the torture. We never got such reports in the previous news and past about people being tortured. Look at the number of arrests that have happened the past six months. It's well documented. If somebody wanted to check, somebody could go around these police stations and check how many arrests, definitely there's something wrong. This is not a normal occurrence. This is just as a result of a political persecution. So as members of parliament start speaking in my capacity of the opposition, we are going to fight on to ensure that we liberate Zambians. We swore to defend the constitution. Members of parliament are ready to even lay their lives in defense of our constitutional democracy because at the rate that we are going, if we do not check the activities of President Laka in the Hilema and the U.P.N.D. government, then definitely this country will be nothing to talk about. I just thought I could make a comment and Thompson, we're very sorry that you find yourself in these circumstances. We have a very bad government now, a government that is ready to torture its own citizens. You are just a victim. You are a victim because you are exercising your constitutional right or belonging to a political party of your choice. That is the reason why you are being punished. That is not the case. You are very young to have been put through this amount of torture. So we are terribly sorry that you had to go through this. You are a man and you have to fight on. The constitution protects your rights. You've got a right to belong to any party that you want to belong to. And express yourself. In fact, it's a matter that has since been brought to the attention of the party where I was detained at Emma's Del Police. I found four young people, their crime is at the Belongtepaturi Front. They were rounded up in a group of 30 by an operation in January, February, led by the police and U.P.N.D. and of these 34 remain detained since February. They've been detained at Emma's Del Police for the last six months. They have not appeared in court. They've not appeared anywhere. They've been in that small cell for the last six months. Honorable George Sangand and Honorable Shaka Fuso have since taken interest and we are trying to see how we can pursue that. And I agree with you. The U.S. report talking about abitrally killings, abitrally arrest. Some people are challenging how the U.S. could write such a strong report. The report has cited cases that occurred in 2022. They've named the victims, the places and the identity. So people should take interest that this government that touts itself that is promoting freedom, rights and freedom is not as demonstrated by that report because when you and I speak about it, they think we are just P.F. and politicking. But here is a credible verified international report because the U.S., wherever they give money, they also follow up on the delivery of human rights and it's in that light that they do such reports. I don't know if Honorable George Sangand has any... Just before he comes in, I thought I could make one quick comment. Most of the suspects that we have spoken to have brought to light one very important factor. The reason why we have this torture and even this prolonged detention, some of the people that are parading themselves as policemen are actually P.N.D. cadas who are interviewing the suspects. Most of the suspects that we have talked to have been able to identify the people who are coming in as plain cloth policemen. These are just cadas. These are people who are not employed as policemen. People who are not supposed to save as policemen. These are U.P.N.D. cadas known by our people. Remember that some of the suspects in these police cells are people that we know and they know each other with these cadas who are coming in to masquerade as police. So this is how bad the situation has become in the police. So we have a collapsed justice system because now even the people that are out there administering justice are just people from the streets. When you talk about the collapse of the rule of law, that's exactly what we are talking about. So come in one but some of the problems that we are facing in this system is that cadas have taken full charge. Previously people complained about cadas in market and bus stations. So we have now cadas, U.P.N.D. cadas in the police torturing our people as was espoused in the American report. We find ourselves all the time in very unfair circumstances in a country where there was a change of regime. Only understanding by the people that the patriotic front was not a democratic party, the patriotic front had further the interests of the cadas ahead of the interests of our citizens. And the law and behold where we are standing here is another demonstration like I said last week, that if anybody had any doubts in this country that we have reached a stage where we can describe Zambia as a police state, what we witnessed even today, like we witnessed last Friday on the occasion of getting Masada Mamba released, is testimony to the fact that there's no democracy in this country. How can you explain detaining a citizen, a youth, for 13 days without charging him? How can you explain having a youth like Thompson Peary being interrogated in the absence of his lawyers? Even when his lawyers had said please when you want to interrogate our client, call us, we'll be available. They've been moving him from one place to another. This is only a holding cell where we came to having released, but they've been pulling him from one place to another. If he's not at first headquarters, he's at an undisclosed location where the police are interrogating him with a view to finding out information which doesn't even have. If he tells you the kind of interrogation was subjected to, it has absolutely nothing to do with the charge that has been preferred to him. This is actually a very convenience charge by the police trying to shield themselves from an embarrassment because we've been trying to trail the police in this investigation for the last two weeks like has been explained and we were told nothing, they didn't charge him, they only obtained originally an ordinary statement and deposited him in custody. Today because we presented the Erito Vibascopas to them and the Atone General was served, we were in court in the morning at eight hours. To our rude shock, they did not bring him to court. When Erito Vibascopas has been issued against the state, their responsibility as police is to bring the subject which is Thompson Fury to police on the death that is mentioned in the Herbascopas, but today we appeared in court at eight hours and the police had the audacity not to show up at court. The lawyers who came from Atone General's chambers, they said, came and applied for an adjournment. We tried to persuade the judge to agree with us that in Herbascopas, you don't adjourn matters. It's either you bring the individual or you commit contempt of court. But of course the court in its own wisdom decided to adjourn the matter and we were supposed now to go back to court on them on Monday next week. That's when it was suggested by the court that Thompson was going to be presented in court. But lo and behold, because now they know they've been caught nappy, that's when they facilitated all these processes of having him released. They, you know, the charge that they've prepared against him has absolutely nothing to do with interrogation that they carried out against him. Now, we were told like the devil person has said that the president had declared that this country was going to be governed according to the rule of law and the president himself made pronouncements not once but about five times that if somebody is arrested they're not going to spend more than 48 hours in custody. In fact, the president was saying, investigate first, then arrest an individual, then keep him in custody for about a year and let him be presented to court. That is what the rule of law suggests. But I've said this repeated that when it has to do with people that are patriotic front or people associated with the patriotic front, there is no rule of law in this country. Because that's the only explanation can give a why Thompson had to spend 13 days behind bars without any charge being prepared against him. And he's been interrogated in the absence of his lawyers. That is a breakdown in the rule of law. But I'm hopeful that, you know, members of a patriotic front will remain resolute. This is a war against democracy. This is a war against the rule of law. Because our friends are intent and an attensuari that the patriotic front is decimated that we don't exist beyond December. But I've always said this that PF is not only a political party. This is a movement of people that know what they are looking for in the nation. You know, I mean, the case that we've got with Thompson here today has nothing to do with breaking the law. The only reason why Thompson found himself behind bars is because some of the UPND cutters were unhappy with the blogging that he was doing. Thompson was bringing about facts about what's going on in the country in terms of corruption, in terms of, you know, nepotism, in terms of tribalism and everything else what was going on. He was a subject of warnings from UPND cutters on various blogs on which he operates. They warned him and threatened him and they told him they're going to report him to the police. And he found himself here reported because an individual who was unhappy with him presented a fake story to the police and they picked him up. So wherever they are, the UPND cutters are very excited that what they intended to achieve has been achieved. This is abuse of the police by the party which is in power and I'm hoping that Zambians can begin to see this. So the premise fortune that we have is people think that members of a protected front deserve what they are going through. This has nothing to do with the PM. This has everything to do with the civil liberties in the country. This has everything to do with the freedom that people are supposed to enjoy by virtue of being citizens of this country. This country continues to be divided on these kinds of lines. You know, Ruzan Patel was arrested and was dragged all the way from Petawke to Lusak. There are no police stations in Petawke. The individual committed an offence allegedly in Petawke. They should have arrested him, they should have investigated him in an area where he can have access to his family members. You know, not where you pick up a citizen and drive him by the night to a place where he has no relatives and now we don't even know where he is. As we finished dealing with Thompson period's case here, we now have to start a ratchet like we did previously. You know, to try and find out where they've taken Ruzan Patel because we have no idea. His family members have been calling me. They want to find out exactly where their relative is. I also do not know. I'm hopeful that I can find him in all of these police stations like we did with Honorable Mwamba. We were all over the place from about 14 hours to 22 hours just when we were told he's a tema of the police. We are hopeful that we can try and locate Ruzan as soon as possible and there's also been stories that he's been assaulted, he's been tortured by the police. His elder brother called me just a while ago and explained to me that when he saw him for about five minutes, he saw that his younger brother had been assaulted. And I think this is why maybe the police are going to hide him from us but we are determined to make sure at least we locate him and we deal with the matter in accordance with the responsibility that we have towards clients who are being abused by the police. But we need to stand up as a nation against torture. We need to stand up as a nation against abuse of the police. Mr Mwamba's case was a very clear case where evidence is all laid bare. This young man's case, I came to see him about two weeks ago after he was arrested. He wasn't looking the way he's looking. In fact, it's only his strength. And I think like I told him, his innocence that has kept him standing. He has been subjected to all manner of atrocities. If he really was a person who could break down bed easy, we're not going to find him in this state that we found him here today. This shows a resilient human being. This shows an individual who says no matter what you're going to do, I'm not going to give you one the information that you want because I don't have it. And secondly, I'm not going to break down under any amount of torture. We used to see him and I want to thank the Central Committee members who have been here. They've kept vigil for the past two weeks. I want to thank all the youths for the patriotic front and even other concerned Zambian youths who have been voicing concern about Thompson's atrocities. This is how Zambian must stand. We should always stand with the sambodus being victimized. Central Committee members, I'm so grateful. You make this work very easy even for us as lawyers. Now there are times when we reach our limitations, but when you know that you are being assisted or supported by your colleagues in the team, it becomes easier for you to fight on. Please continue and let's not stop on only on Thompson. We've got Rizan Pateo who has unfortunately been arrested in similar circumstances by Thompson. If we don't gang up around him, he will also spend another 14 days in custody. I hope we can continue working together to ensure that the young man also is Rizan and he goes back home. These people have not done anything wrong. If it is those statements that are talking about wanting to contain the Catholics, what we are going through now is a justification of the fact that maybe there's something of substance in those documents. Why is a police abusing innocent citizens if the government has said those documents were fake? Why do you arrest someone and keep him in custody for two weeks on a fake document? Why do you go and pick up a citizen in Pateo who can bring him more the way here in pursuit of a document that you have said have gigante. You said look we don't, this can't be justified. For me it, you know, there's no smoke without fire. There's something wrong that has happened. It is true that the Catholic Church is under threat by this government. It is true that there are schemes to reduce the influence of the Catholic Church in the political spectrum. The Catholic Church is on the political path. The adversary must be the patriotic front and we must have a contest of ideas. Not this abuse that we are seeing. Where our leadership are being abused they don't want us to be on social media. That's what they targeted Imanoma because Imanoma is our voice on the social media. We can't use that television because they have nationalized TV. Even the private TV stations, others don't even want to cover it because they are afraid. So the only alternative of Godch is a brave journalist like Imanoma Mamba who's got his own team that makes us available on the social media so people can know what is going on in the country. We will not stop. We will soldier on in doing this and members of PFM just urging you, especially the youths, I saw how you came out in support of your friend Thompson and some of you were even issuing threats to us. We love those threats because when you threaten us then we will stand up and work. You know, that's how democracy is supposed to work. Yes, we must be able to show you that we stand up with you. And that's why we are able to look, we are supposed in the parliament right now. We are discussing very serious business in parliament but we can't continue being in parliament when our party is being destroyed. You know, for example, those determined to destroy this political party we will combine the roles. We will sit in parliament because we are elected members of parliament. I've got 65,000 people that are representing Kasha constituent. But those 65,000 people are just as important to me as Thompson's liberty is because this is a country where we are supposed to have freedoms and liberties and if anybody is going to be abused we will stand without such a person. So if they want us we are so determined we will go all the way up to the end. They just need to start doing what is right. You know, people are going to question them and Thompson don't stop questioning them. Believe it or not, don't stop questioning the status quo. If something is wrong, we as citizens we must call out leadership exactly. Even if they are going to threaten us and lie about whatever they are going to do to us we are not going to deny. We will stand here in support of you. You can see members of the Central Committee who have come here. They have been here with you for the past so many days. Today all of them were here from eight hours. When I came twice here we were not around but they were determined to make sure when you come back you will find them here. So be strong young man. This is what it means to return liberties in the countries when they are going to be reduced. You are an example to so many people there. And all those who are blogging please don't be scared. Believe it or not, lies have got short legs. At the end of the day people will know the truth about what happened to Thompson what happened to Rizani what happened to Emmanuel what happened to Luchi. Everybody will know but for us we are determined to give this government credible checks and balances and we are doing it in parliament we are even doing it outside parliament. That's why we are coming to stand here. Thank you very much for listening to me. Thank you very much. So don't the members of parliament down the way maybe we may intercept them one meet the more Rizani. That's right. Yes. So we have a person kawata that's in case we put him at kawata. It's possible yes. So if there are any that are coming there they also should check at the long leg house. Okay. Yes, she needs to say MCs to say something this is very very very important. Thank you very much countrymen and women. I'm standing here as the mother and I'm very very agitated. You know the rule of law according to him HH as the president before he ascended into power he said he was going to rule this country according to the rule of law. Now it's not the case. It's not fair us as mothers I'm speaking as a mother. This Thompson is a youth and there's no way you can take somebody's child to come and detain them to be God's God of the many people or whoever wronged him to come and keep somebody's child for over 10 days in behind the bars which is not right. According to the philosopher of political philosopher Alistota said no man should suffer in harm or in good for the case they did not do and this is what this case why is this suffering for the case that he did not do? We are very very upset as mothers me as a member of central committee I'm going to fight this whoever is being caught without a case I'll be there for them and I'm going to be the voice as a woman because according to the law this is our country and we've got human rights and if the human rights are not ready to speak on behalf of PF we as human beings because from our birth we were given the right as human beings so we are going to voice our voices to speak on behalf of our husbands our children and also our sisters who are yet to be incarcerated we know what they're planning whoever is going to be picked without the law we are going to be there and we will stand with them so they should just know UPND came into power using the same youths and they were blogging for them it was even worse because they were even insulting how many times was our former president insulted in public he was undressed everything but never ever not even a single day did we hear that a youth has been picked has been incarcerated for over 10 days it never happened why is it happening when they said we used to do bad things and why are they repeating the same bad things we used to do even worse to torture our youths to torture our brothers to torture our husband that we are not going to allow it we are not going to allow it thank you very much