Keypoints:
- Mwamba challenges continued detention
- Eighteen suspects petition High Court
- UK stresses transparency and due process
ZAMBIA’S detained retired Anglican Bishop Trevor Mwamba has joined 17 co-accused in asking the High Court to declare aspects of their continued detention unlawful, intensifying scrutiny of a politically sensitive treason case following Zambia’s August 13 election.
The legal action shifts attention from the circumstances surrounding the arrests to questions over whether constitutional safeguards have been observed. It also comes as Anglican leaders, UN officials and international partners raise concerns about due process and political freedoms in Zambia.
Bishop joins High Court challenge
Mwamba, the retired Anglican Bishop of Botswana and a leader of the United National Independence Party, is among 18 people who have petitioned the High Court over alleged violations of their constitutional rights while in custody.
The group includes opposition presidential candidate Brian Mundubile, his running mate Makebi Zulu, lawyer George Chisanga and several others linked to the security investigation that followed Zambia’s August 13 election.
The constitutional petition, filed at the Lusaka High Court, challenges the circumstances surrounding their arrests, detention and transfers between correctional facilities, as well as alleged restrictions on access to lawyers and relatives.
The detainees contend that aspects of their continued confinement and transfer to Mukobeko Maximum Security Correctional Facility breached constitutional and procedural safeguards.
The case deepens a controversy Africa Briefing has followed since the security operation involving Mundubile and opposition figures immediately after the election.
Mwamba was among 11 people initially detained following an August 14 security operation at a residence in Lusaka’s Kabulonga area.
Police allege national security threat
Zambia Police said the operation followed intelligence concerning activities authorities considered a threat to national security.
Inspector General of Police Graphel Musamba said security personnel recovered five AK-47 rifles, an automatic Uzi, ammunition and other items during the operation.
Authorities subsequently said those detained were being investigated for treason-related offences. Eighteen suspects, including Mundubile, Zulu and Mwamba, were later charged with treason.
The allegations have not been proven in court.
Police and government officials have denied that political affiliation is the basis for the prosecutions, arguing that the criminal justice process should determine whether the evidence supports the charges.
The case emerged during an already contentious aftermath to the presidential election. Africa Briefing previously reported how irregularities identified by election monitors complicated President Hakainde Hichilema’s return for a second term, although monitoring assessments did not conclude that the discrepancies altered the election result.
Anglican leaders raise concern
Mwamba’s detention has widened the case beyond Zambia’s domestic political arena.
Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba, head of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, said in a September 1 statement that the church was ‘deeply disturbed’ by the detention of opposition figures, including Mwamba.
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa said Mwamba is the retired Bishop of Botswana and a Zambian national who leads UNIP.
That political role is significant. Authorities have not presented his arrest as action connected to his ecclesiastical office, but as part of a broader national security investigation involving opposition figures.
Makgoba nevertheless urged authorities to respect the rights of detainees and ensure access to basic necessities while legal proceedings continue.
UK stresses due process
The case has also reached Britain’s Parliament.
In a written response published on September 15, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said the British High Commission in Lusaka was closely following developments in Zambia, including recent detentions.
In its written response to the House of Lords, the British government said it had emphasised the importance of transparency and due process in its engagements with the Zambian government and other stakeholders.
The response did not say that specific representations had been made to the Zambian government concerning Mwamba.
Further questions tabled in the House of Lords on September 16 seek details about the factual basis for Mwamba’s treason charge, his treatment in detention and whether specific assurances have been sought over due process and a fair and prompt trial. Those questions remain awaiting answers.
Government rejects ‘crackdown’ claims
UN Special Rapporteur Gina Romero has raised concerns about what she described as the ‘criminalisation of political dissent’ after the election and called for political detainees to be released.
Zambia’s government strongly disputes that assessment.
In a September 3 response, authorities rejected descriptions of events as a ‘post-election crackdown’, arguing that opposition membership does not provide immunity from criminal investigation and that active cases should be determined by the courts.
The government also challenged the UN expert’s description of treason as a capital offence.
Under Zambia’s amended Penal Code, treason now carries life imprisonment. The country abolished the death penalty in 2022, meaning treason is no longer punishable by execution.
The treason proceedings come alongside other measures that have intensified scrutiny of Zambia’s political environment, including the revocation of passports belonging to six prominent government critics on national-security grounds.
What happens next?
Attention now turns to the High Court and whether the 18 detainees can establish that their continued confinement, transfers or restrictions have breached constitutional protections.
The proceedings could also bring greater clarity to the allegations against individual defendants, an important issue in a case involving politicians, lawyers, security figures and a prominent Anglican cleric.
For Mwamba, the case has already travelled beyond Zambia. Anglican leaders, UN officials and British parliamentarians are watching how authorities reconcile national-security claims with constitutional guarantees of due process.
The central questions nevertheless remain for Zambia’s courts: whether prosecutors can substantiate the treason allegations and whether the state has complied with the law in detaining the accused while the cases proceed.
