Thu, 25 May 2017 12:22:55 +0000
By Chikumbi Katebe
UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema has been granted an order to allow him open visitation rights as opposed to restricted visitation only for his lawyers, wife and children during his continued incarceration.
And Magistrate David Simusamba has made the fourth adjournment in the matter to either dismiss or uphold the treason charge against the UPND leader and five others to Friday 26 May, 2017.
Opposition legal counsel Jack Mwiimbu told his clients that Magistrate Simusamba has ordered that anybody was free to visit Mr Hichilema and his co-accused at any time as long as it was within the stipulated visiting hours.
“There is an order that all those who want to visit Mr Hichilema and his co-accused are free and can do so as long as it was within the visiting period on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday without restriction,” he said.
This was after defence lawyer Vincent Malambo SC applied before court for an order to remove restrictions in the visitation for the six treason suspects held at Chimbokaila Correctional Facility in Lusaka.
“I have two issues to raise: 1) is in relation to difficulties for both defence and prosecution legal counsel to access court premises, and the second issue is in relation to visitation rights that the accused persons have to be visited by friends and relatives in their places of confinement,” he said.
He stated that under the guise of security, overzealous police officers have been harassing judiciary workers including legal counsel attending court on dates coinciding with the treason case.
He said lawyers were forced to park their vehicles outside the court premises at owners’ risk despite there being plenty of parking space inside.
And Mr Malambo accused police of harassing lawyers and that two junior female lawyers were roughed up and bundled in a police van then taken to Kabwata Police Station in unexplained circumstances.
Magistrate Simusamba who described the concerns as serious then ordered for a chamber hearing with both counsel and head of court police security after which meeting he reportedly ordered for open visitation rights for the accused persons including minimised police screening at court.
Meanwhile, some UPND cadres had a field day earlier in the court room when they turned to ejecting innocent members of the public suspected not to belong to the opposition party.
This was after Members of Parliament (MPs) and other senior party officials found the courtroom packed to capacity including the reserved area.
