Fri, 24 Mar 2017 14:02:29 +0000
By CHARLES MUSONDA
KOMBONI Radio owner Lesa Kasoma Nyirenda yesterday told the Lusaka Magistrate Court that she bit a police officer on the arm in self-defence.
Kasoma said this yesterday before Magistrate Felix Kaoma in a case she is charged for assaulting a police officer on duty.
Opening her defence yesterday, Kasoma said on October 5, 2016 the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) phoned and informed her that it had with immediate lifted the suspension of Komboni Radio’s broadcasting licence after which she went to the radio station which was still guarded by police officers.
“I found a police officer who, in my opinion, appeared drunk. I introduced myself and explained to him that the station had been opened with immediate effect but he was shocked and told me that he was not aware of any such development.
“I started taking pictures and my intention was to send them to the IBA to prove that that was the situation at Komboni Radio…as I was taking pictures another armed police officer came and I realised that in my excitement I forgotten the letter from IBA at home,” she said.
She said she went back to the station and her ordeal started after the police officers exchanged shifts between 18:57 and 19:00 because the vehicle that brought night shift officers drove at high speed, scaring her and others who were at the scene.
“I jumped into my vehicle and drove away but I later parked at a safe place and walked back to the station. I knocked on the gate and stood on the road about 100 metres away.
“One officer came out and engaged me in a conversation but before I could show him the letter, he grabbed me on the front of my body top and from behind in my jeans and started dragging me to the station while beating me,” she said.
Kasoma said at the gate, she held onto a pillar but she was kicked and another officer tried to twist her hands.
She said it was at that point that she bit him on the lower arm and not on the finger to repel the pain the officers were inflicting on her.
“After kicking me inside the station, they handcuffed me and continued to kick me in the ribs and on the head and stepped on while lying down,” she said.
