Nakacinda walks out of Chimbokaila after serving sentence for defaming the President

Patriotic Front secretary general Raphael Nakacinda walked out of Lusaka Central Correctional Facility, known as Chimbokaila, on Wednesday 21 October, a year to the day after he began serving a sentence for defaming President Hakainde Hichilema. Supporters from the PF and the Tonse-Pamodzi Alliance had gathered from dawn, and they cheered and lifted him onto their shoulders when he came out. Mr Nakacinda began an 18-month sentence with hard labour on 21 October 2025, after the Lusaka High Court upheld his conviction. Remission under the Zambia Correctional Service Act cut the term to 12 months. In December 2025 he received a further six-month sentence for hate speech over remarks about Bweengwa voters, but the magistrate ordered that it run at the same time as the first, so it did not add to his stay. On release he said prison had not weakened him. "Prison has not broken us; it has only refined our resolve," he said, adding that he and his supporters came out "ready to breathe fire to challenge this administration." Mr Nakacinda was convicted in May 2024 by Lusaka Magistrate Irene Wishimanga over a public claim that President Hichilema was summoning judges to influence cases against the PF. The offence of defaming the President was repealed from the Penal Code in December 2022, but the courts held that it still applied because his remarks were made in January 2022, before the repeal. The UPND government has said the cases are about law and order and not political persecution, and that the courts acted independently. ## Why it matters The case has stayed in public debate because the law he was convicted under no longer exists, and it has fed the argument over how far Zambians may criticise the Head of State. For the PF, which lost power in 2021, his release means its secretary general is out of prison while Brian Mundubile, Makebi Zulu and 16 others remain at Mukobeko on treason-related charges and are asking the High Court for bail. ## What happens next Mr Na