Opposition leader Brian Mundubile, his running mate Makebi Zulu and sixteen co-accused in the treason case have sued the State, challenging what their lawyers describe as violations of their rights in detention.
According to the petition, three of the accused say that on 7 September they were moved from Mukobeko Maximum Security Facility in Kabwe to Mwembeshi Correctional Facility outside Lusaka without a lawful warrant — an allegation that goes to the heart of how the State is handling its highest-profile case.
Confirmed so far: eighteen people face a single count of treason; the accused include Mundubile, Zulu, businessman Harry Valden Findlay and Patrick Mwansa, husband of Tasila Lungu. Contested: the State's account of the transfers and the basis of the underlying charge, details of which have not been made public.
The suit follows the Lusaka High Court's ruling earlier this month upholding Findlay's detention on lawful grounds — but with a pointed warning from Justice Kelvin Limbani that an accused person cannot be held indefinitely without trial, and an order that he be brought before a competent court.
Together, the rulings and the petition sketch the battlefield of the coming months: the State pressing a treason case it has not yet detailed in public, and the defence attacking the process around it. No trial date has been set.
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