I WAS ON DEATH ROW – HH

I WAS on death row and had it not been for our legal team being stronger than the prosecution, I would have been convicted, sentenced and hanged until pronounced dead, President Hakainde Hichilema has said.

And President Hichilema has called for reconciliation between his predecessor and himself, declaring that whatever differences they had between them should not make the two leaders avoid each other during national and state events.

President Hichilema who was remanded at Mukobeko Maximum Prison after he was charged with treason in 2019 following his road rage with former President Edgar Lungu said he had been determined to abolish the death penalty because he could easily have been a victim of the law.

The Head of State said in abolishing the death penalty, he was thinking about the lives of all the prisoners who were on death row in prisons because the punishment bordered on human rights.

President Hichilema accused the previous government of having placed him on death row and that had it not been for good lawyers, he (President Hichilema) and five of his co-accused, the court was going to convict them and sentence them to death.

He was speaking yesterday at State House at a luncheon to mark the abolishment of the death penalty.

Mr Hichilema said some of the people who were in the past executed, never committed any crime which they were hanged for and added that he was one of the people who were on death row despite not committing any crime.

“But for me I was a happy detainee because I knew that I never committed that offence but I could have been hanged by the neck until pronounced dead,” President Hichilema said.

He said the death penalty was a big global human rights challenge that required that world leaders gather courage and abolish it everywhere without hiding behind the past bad laws.

Mr Hakainde said those advocating for the retention of the death penalty as a deterrent for would-be offenders should realise that it was dehumanising to subject human beings to such kind of punishment.

“Some of the people who were executed never committed crimes that led them to being executed. I know this because I was on death row myself technically,” he said.

He thanked Parliament for agreeing to abolish the death penalty and also thanked all citizens for supporting his administration over the abolishment of the law.

And President Hichilema says there is need for him and former President Lungu to get together during national events for the greater good of the country regardless of how they both feel about each other.

President Hichilema has called for unity and reconciliation between him and former President Lungu because unity and harmony was more important than how the two leaders felt about each other.

The Head of State said although there were issues between them, it was important to reconcile and converge for the benefit of unity and the citizens.

He said the country needed former President Lungu’s wisdom and that it did not matter how the Head of State and his predecessor felt about each other because according to him, the two leaders were the symbol of unity and peace.

President Hichilema said he recognizes the former President where ever he was and his busy schedule but that it was important to get together irrespective of how they may feel about each other.