/ 10 August 2001

TWO ZAMBIAN COPS TO HANG FOR MURDER

TWO Zambian police officers have been sentenced to death by hanging, after the Lusaka High Court found them guilty of murder. The senior police officers were arrested in March 1999 for murdering a truck driver after hijacking his vehicle laden with copper destined for South Africa, a Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) report said. In a brief ruling, Judge Hilda Chilomba sentenced Peter Mwamba and Charles Nkandu to be hanged by the neck until they die, the report said. The two men embraced each other after the sentence was pronounced and openly declared in court that the battle was still on, the report said, without elaborating on what the two officers meant. – AFP