By Brightwell Chabusha
Responding to questions during a briefing in Lusaka on Monday where he announced the pardoning of 966 prisoners by President Edgar Lungu, home affairs minister Stephen Kampyongo said the release of murder convict Beatrice Hagwende Mwala was within the law.
Mr Kampyongo explained that Ms Hangwende of Lukwalo village, chief Mungule of Chibombo District, who was arrested in 2007 on two accounts of murder and attempted murder had her death sentence commuted to life after general amnesty in 2018 and after appeal, the life sentence was reduced to 20 years.
Mr Kampyongo said after working out the dates from her 20 year sentence, a decision was reached by the Correctional Service to release her as she had served her sentence.
“The Correctional Service is now a correctional service, and the measures they are putting in place are not as punitive as it was in the past. So the lady was taken through all the processes and the Correctional Service did what they did within the confines of the law. There is nothing irregular about it,” Mr Kampyongo explained. -ZR