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100 Zambians Surrender to Police for Defaming President
About 100 Zambians turned themselves in to the police Monday for arrest on charges of accusing President Frederick Chiluba of being a thief, local police and witnesses said.
They said those Zambians are among 3,000 who appended their signatures to a petition alleging Chiluba is a thief.
Dean Mung'omba, president of the opposition Zambia Alliance for Progress, said outside the police station that he came to the central police station with his supporters who signed the petition.
He said he was not scared of the police as he had enough evidence for the allegations he had made.
Mung'omba said the police service was not truthful when it said that some people who signed the petition later claimed that they did not know what they were signing.
He said all those who signed the petition knew what they were doing, adding that all those who signed the petition should go to the police and make statements.
However, he said, it was an individual's choice to report to the police or not.
Police last month ordered all signatories to the petition, which was drawn by civic organizations, to surrender themselves to police for arrest because of defaming the republican president.
Since the petition was signed last month, police have arrested four opposition politicians and two journalists from the independent newspaper The Post, which published articles alleging Chiluba was a thief.
The trial of the two newsmen, editor Fred M'membe and reporter Bivan Saluseki, and of opposition politician Edith Nawakwi of the Forum for Democracy and Development on defamation charges is scheduled to kick off on September 13 in a Lusaka magistrate court.
If convicted, they would face up to three years of terms in prison.
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