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The wife of former Lunte Member of Parliament, Mutotwe Kafwaya, has asked the Lusaka High Court to order authorities to produce her husband before court and explain the legal basis for his alleged continued detention following a security raid in Lusaka.
Dinis Ng’andu Kafwaya has applied for leave to commence habeas corpus proceedings during the court vacation, arguing that her husband’s whereabouts remained undisclosed and that his continued detention required urgent judicial scrutiny.
In an intended affidavit filed in support of the application, Mrs Kafwaya says her husband was apprehended on August 13 during a security operation at the Kabulonga residence of NRPUP presidential candidate Brian Mundubile.
She alleged that a combined team of Zambia Army and Zambia Police Service officers, including members of a commando unit, raided the residence and took away Mr Kafwaya, Mundubile and other people who were present.
Mrs Kafwaya said her husband was subsequently taken to an undisclosed location and that the family was not informed of his whereabouts, the reasons for his apprehension or any offence he was suspected of committing.
She said persistent efforts by the family to locate him later established that he had been taken by police and other State actors to an unknown location.
According to the affidavit, attempts by the family and Mr Kafwaya’s lawyers to gain access to him have also been unsuccessful, leaving him effectively incommunicado.
Mrs Kafwaya further claimed that neither her husband nor the family has been provided with charge particulars, a warrant of arrest, detention order or any other legal instrument authorising his continued detention.
She argued that the circumstances raise serious constitutional concerns and required immediate intervention by the High Court to safeguard her husband’s right to personal liberty and uphold the rule of law.
Mrs Kafwaya said it was a matter of grave concern for a person to remain deprived of liberty for days without being charged, granted access to legal counsel or family, or brought before a court.
She is asking the High Court to issue a writ of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum requiring the person or persons holding Mr Kafwaya to produce him before court and show sufficient and lawful cause for his continued detention.
She contended that without urgent court intervention, her husband would continue to suffer what she described as unlawful deprivation of liberty without judicial scrutiny.
The Attorney General has been cited as the respondent.
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