ZAF officer was brutally beaten - Witness
A CONV ICT yesterday told the Lusaka High Court that a female police officer commanded other offers to push Zambia Air Force (ZAF) Sergeant Mark Choongwa into a cell were he landed to the floor hitting the back of his head. Katongo Mulenga a businesswoman currently serving a seven-year jail sentenced narrated before Judge Mwila Kombe that while in detention at Woodlands police station, she saw Sgt Choongwa being dragged and pushed into a police cell. This is in the matter in which four people among then two senior police officers are facing a charge of manslaughter. The suspects who are Veronica Lucy Shawa, Mike Kapale, Lyton Mwale and James Ngulube are alleged to have brutally beaten Choongwa while in police custody at Woodland a police post. 0ulenga testified that on 0ay 17 2018 at around 22: 00 Sgt Choongwa was taken in as a suspect and she recognised him on a personal level. She told the court that when she saw how he was being dragged, she told the arresting officer that she Nnew the man and that he was a ZAF sergeant and that they should treat him properly. “When I saw how they were pulling sergeant Choongwa, I told the arrogating officer that he was a ZAF sergeant and that they should pull him properly. “At that point a female police officer who seemed to be in command answered and said nivanu ivo vamene muzibana panja’ meaning I don’t care how you know him,” Mulenga narrated. 0ulenga testified that after pushing Sgt Choongwa, police officers left him in the cell and when the other inmates noticed that there was a change in his breathing, they started calling for help. She narrated that when the police came and upon seeing that Sgt Choongwa was in a bad state, Shawa suggested that he should be made to sit up. Mulenga told the court that at that moment Sgt Choongwa’s breathing changed for the worse and his mouth was foaming. She said at that point he taken out of the cell but he was already unconscious. And another witness, Sylvia 0unangwa, identified 6hawa and Kapali in the dock as being among police officers that brutalised Sgt Choongwa. Munangwa told the court that at the time of the incident, she was in detention at Woodlands police and that she saw Sgt Choongwa being carried out of the cell unconscious. The matter comes on August 14 for continued hearing.