The former president of Zambia, Frederick Chiluba, said on Sunday that he would not flee the country despite numerous allegations of criminal wrongdoings that have prompted widespread calls for his arrest.
”Why should I consider running away from my country? Zambia is my home. I feel proud in Zambia,” Chiluba said.
He was responding to an application made in court last week by lawyers defending two journalists and opposition lawmakers, asking a magistrate court to temporarily ban him from travelling until he testifies in court over numerous criminal allegations against him.
”I respect and I love my country. I will not run away,” he told a news conference.
Chiluba has been summoned by a court to answer questions regarding his alleged criminal activities in a case in which two journalists and two opposition leaders have been asked to show that Chiluba was a thief.
Lawyer Mutembo Nchito asked a local magistrate court that Chiluba and his former intelligence chief, Xavier Chungu, should surrender their passports to the court so they would not leave the country.
Nchito is defending Fred M’membe and Bivan Saluseke of the Post Newspaper and two opposition lawmakers Edith Nawakwi and Dipak Patel of the Forum or Democracy and Development (FDD) who were arrested by Chiluba’s government for defamation after publishing a story alleging that the former president was a thief.
Last week, Chiluba’s former senior advisor Donald Chanda was jailed for a week for contempt when he failed to answer a question in court over Chiluba’s alleged criminal activities. – Sapa-AFP