The Lusaka Magistrates’ Court on Thursday refused to dismiss an application by the Secretary-General of Zambia’s ruling party, United Party for National Development (UPND), Batuke Imenda, following a charge of hate speech filed against him for allegedly calling the Catholic Archbishop of Lusaka, Alick Banda, “the Lucifer of Zambia”
While rejecting Imenda’s application to dismiss the lawsuit, Magistrate Nsunge Chanda said the case which was filed by opposition leader, Sean Tembo, was properly before the Court in accordance with Section 90 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) and as such, could not be struck out.
In the original complaints, Tembo who is the president of the Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP), had stated that on May 28, 2023, Imenda, at a press briefing which was also streamed on various online platforms, did call the Archbishop Banda was the “Lucifer of Zambia”.
He contended the said statement by the ruling party’s Secretary-General constituted hate speech against the Archbishop.
“That the conduct of the accused is criminalised under Section 65 of the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act no.2 of 2021 of the laws of Zambia,” he had said in the suit.
The UPND Secretary-General could however, not take plea because the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Gilbert Phiri, was yet to give consent to Tembo to prosecute the matter, which forced Magistrate Chanda to adjourn the case to March 4, pending the DPP’s instructions.
In a letter dated January 15, the DPP had refused to grant Tembo permission to privately prosecute the accused.
The letter which was signed by Phiri, said Tembo could not be given the right to conduct a private prosecution because he had not availed any cogent evidence to show that Imenda committed the offence of Hate Speech by means of a Computer System as required by section 65 of the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act of the Laws of Zambia.
Tembo had also written back to the DPP on January 22, and enclosed a Flash drive with video evidence to show evidence that Imenda had used a computer system when he committed the alleged offence.
He had also informed the DPP that he had four witnesses ready to testify in court that the accused did utter Hate Speech and used a computer system to do so.