BY SYLVESTER KAUMBA
The Lusaka Magistrates Court has acquitted Komboni Radio Proprietor Lesa Kasoma Nyirenda of the charge of assault on a police officer on duty.
In his judgment this morning, Magistrate Felix Kaoma who reduced the case of assault on a police officer on duty to common assault ruled that Mrs. Nyirenda acted in self defence when she bit the police officer on his arm.
Magistrate Kaoma ruled that the accused acted within the confines of the law when she went to her radio station after the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) lifted the suspension of the broadcasting licence.
He said the accused did not need permission from the police to enter her premises as the IBA who had earlier suspended the broadcast licence had lifted the suspension adding that the letter was evidence enough to allow the accused inside the radio station.
And speaking to journalists shortly after the judgment, Mrs Nyirenda said she is happy that justice has prevailed.
Mrs. Nyirenda said her case has given hope to women and hoped that this will change the way women in the country are going to be handled by law enforcement agencies.
This was in a case in which Mrs Nyirenda was accused of assaulting a police officer, Constable Simon Chisanga.
It was alleged that Mrs Nyirenda on October 5 last year bit a police officer Simon Chisanga of Makeni police station.
The officer was deployed to man Komboni Radio station situated in Lusaka’s Kamwala area after it was shut by the government.
During her defence, Mrs Nyirenda told the Lusaka Magistrate Court that she bit a police officer on the arm in self-defence.
She told the court that she went to the radio station after she received a letter from the IBA over the lifting of the suspension licence but found that police officers were still manning her premises.
The Komboni radio director said that she later started taking pictures of her premises and it was at that point when officers challenged her, but she jumped into her vehicle and drove off.
After some time, Mrs Nyirenda came back to look for one of her security guards and it was at that time that Constable Chisanga confronted her with other police officers started dragging her inside the radio station.
Mrs Nyirenda said at the gate, she held onto a pillar but she was kicked and another officer tried to twist her hands.
She said it was at that point that she bit him on the lower arm and not on the finger to repel the pain the officers were inflicting on her.