Zambia: Opposition Leader Charged With Treason

Zambia opposition leader Brian Mundubile has been charged with treason, his lawyer has said amid heightened political tensions in the country. Mundubile was arrested on Thursday, after a deadly raid by the authorities led the opposition politician to go into hiding. He had disputed the results of the country's recent presidential election, which saw incumbent President Hakainde Hichilema securing a second term. Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn The authorities then accused Mundubile's NRPUP party of planning an armed insurgency, which it denied. On Saturday night, Mundubile's lawyer Milner Katolo announced that his client had been charged with treason. The opposition leader looks forward to answering the accusation in court, Katolo told the Zambian Eye. The lawyer said 17 others, including Mundubile's running mate Makebi Zulu, had also been charged with treason. Mundubile gained 38%\ per cent of the vote in the August 13 election, while Hichilema secured 60 per cent, official results show. The day after the poll, security forces raided a property in the capital, Lusaka, linked to Mundubile, killing a former cabinet minister and arresting a number of other politicians. Following the raid, Mundubile and Zulu took refuge at a United Nations building in the city. The pair were detained after the president put pressure on the UN to hand them over. The opposition was unable to mount a legal challenge to the election outcome as the courts were sealed off by the authorities today, for the case to be filed. Hichilema is due to be sworn in for a second term tomorrow. Regional and international observers described the Election Day as largely peaceful, but Zambia's Human Rights Commission has called for accountability over people whose whereabouts remain unknown following arrests and security operations around the elections. -BBC You can now read the *Ghanaian Times* and *The Spectator* newspapers digitally on [TimesNewsPlus]( https://timesnewsplus.com/newspapers ). #GhanaianTimes #TimesNewsPlus Follow our WhatsApp Channel now! https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbAjG7g3gvWajUAEX12Q Read the original article on Ghanaian Times . AllAfrica publishes around 600 reports a day from more than 90 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals , representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica . To address comments or complaints, please Contact us . AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa - aggregating, producing and distributing 600 news and information items daily from over 90 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Abuja, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Washington DC. Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy . We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.