Russia explains that 23-year-old Zambian student Lemekani Nyirenda died on the battle front while fighting in the Russia Ukraine war because Russian law allows prisoners to be provided an opportunity for pardon in exchange for participation in special military operations.
The Zambian Government had asked Russia to urgently provide information on how Mr Nyirenda, a government sponsored nuclear engineering student at the Moscow engineering physics institute, who had been serving a prison sentence in Moscow after being convicted for drug related charges, had ended up on the battlefield in Ukraine.
In a ministerial statement in Parliament this morning, Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Stanley Kabuko disclosed that this information was according to the response he got from his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov during a telephone conversation on 24th November 2022, adding that it was unfortunate that Mr Nyirenda was killed in September while participating in these activities.
“23-year-old Zambian student Lemekani Nyirenda who died on the battle front while fighting for Russia in Ukraine was conditionally pardoned on 23rd August 2022 in order to join the Russian sidelines, however, the government through the Zambian mission in Moscow was not informed about Mr Nyirenda`s enlistment for amnesty until the time of his demise,” he disclosed
Meanwhile, Mr Kakubo has announced that the remains of Mr Nyirenda will arrive in Lusaka on Sunday 11th December, 2022 accompanied by a representative from the Zambian embassy in Moscow.
That boy was failed by hh. A caring leader would have fought to bring him back home using diplomatic channels
Don’t comment on my posts you useless upnd cadre. Go irritate your f00Iish father and mother. Not me. I am not interested in you so please forget and ignore me. I have been ignoring you for a long time now. Please return the favour
Look at the UK based Impostor he is there blogging from his shared hostel in the UK, he forgets how Lazy Lungu ignored the students during the pandemic who were in India.
This is a failure of magnitude proportions by the Zambian government. What exactly do these embassy staff do if not to look out for the interests of Zambians
And there was HH quick on CNN talking about wanting answers to appease the west when his embassy in Moscow could have updated him on Russian laws.
This does not answer the question of how Nyirenda found himself at the battlefront. I thought we should have asked Russia to show us that Nyirenda actually agreed to fight the war in exchange for a pardon.
That such a law exists in Russia is not enough.
Clearly the Russians take us for fools. How does a foreign student sentenced to jail time in horrible conditions be in a position to make any sensible decision about life or death? The pardon was coercion, under the circumstances as there was counselling from any legal person or Zambian Embassy official. This response is proof of what Russia is – a nightmare for the world. Only an ***** will think that anything beneficial would come out a relationship with country. The young man was executed.