On Thursday, 8 August 2024, Zambian Police announced that they had taken opposition politician Fred M’membe into custody in connection with a post in which the leader of the Democratic Republic of the Congo allegedly claimed to have bought off critics by paying millions of dollars to his counterpart in Zambia.

According to a statement from the Police, M’membe, the opposition leader of the small Socialist Party, was taken into custody for “the offence of seditious practices.”

M’membe, a 65-year-old journalist and lawyer, has frequently violated the law because of his vocal criticism of Zambia’s Government. The police claimed to have taken action in response to an article that M’membe shared on social media on July 16 under the headline President Felix “Tshisekedi tells DRC Catholic Bishops about the USD 20 million payout to buy Zambia’s silence.”

According to Police spokesman Rae Hamoonga, “the content of this article is alleged to have been intended to bring into hatred or contempt or to incite disaffection against the government as established by law.” M’membe was held in Police cells and will appear in court to respond to the accusations, he said.

The same charges led to the arrest of a journalist who runs the online Zambian Whistleblower on Tuesday, 6 August 2024. The article in question claimed that a government agency was leasing office space from a building that belonged to President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia. On Thursday, 7 August 2024, Thomas Zgambo was released under bail.

AFP

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