A total of 55 inmates have been assisted to abandon their appeals at Mwembeshi maximum B correctional facility in the month of July.  Another 8 were assisted with their appeal processes.

The 55 decided to abandon their appeals owing to different reasons such as not wanting to appeal anymore and delays in having their appeals heard.

Some inmates spoken to said they decided to abandon their appeals because they wanted to benefit from the presidential pardon.

“People who have pending appeals cannot benefit from amnesties such as the presidential pardon. Some of us appealed a long time ago but our matters haven’t been called upto now, meanwhile we are missing out when there is a presidential pardon so we have just decided to abandon our appeals,” he said.

Another inmate said the delays in causelisting them after appealing defeated the whole purpose of appealing when a substantial amount of their sentence had been served already.

Notice of abandonment forms were prepared and inmates signed them.

The Legal Services Unit (LSU) Lusaka which is comprised of PRISCCA and Legal Aid Board (LAB) has been conducting routine visits of correctional facilities in Lusaka with financial support from the GIZ in the Enabling Access to Justice, Civil Society Participation and Transparency (EnACT) Project.

A total of  164 abandonments have been made at the facility so far. 109 Abandonments were made earlier in the year.