Former Labour Minister Austin Liato has been discharged from prison on compassionate grounds.
Mr Liato has been admitted to the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka since August 17 for reasons medical authorities refused to disclose.
Zambia Prisons Commissioner General Percy Chato, who delivered the news of the release, told Mr LIATO that he is now a free man.
Mr Chato said Mr Liato’s discharge is in accordance with the Prisons Act and he is among 22 inmates released under similar conditions.
He said the Act allows the discharge of inmates with life threatening conditions to be released so they can access medical treatment which prison authorities were unable to provide.
And Mr Liato told ZNBC from his hospital bed that he is humbled by the gesture.
He thanked President Edgar Lungu for the compassion shown to him.
Mr Liato was due to finish his prison term in October next year.
The Supreme Court in June upheld the two-year jail sentence with hard labour imposed on Liato by the Lusaka Magistrate’s Court for possession of 2.1 million Kwacha reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime.
Memorie C Mwango
UN FAIRNESS AT ITS BEST .